Grace
by mortalhelix
Summary: A strange new jutsu has transported Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto into their pasts. [nonbiased critiques and reviews welcomed][Completed][1st]
1. 01 The How

**Grace**

**Summary:** a strange new jutsu has transported Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto into their pasts. To be more precise, to the time when their supposed to be 6 years old. What will happen? How will things change when they manage to get back? If they get back? (SasuNaruSaku: ages 16)

**Parings:** between major characters, there are none, I'm trying to keep this as a close friendship fic. There might be a few minor pairings

**Rating: **hmm… I'm going to rate T to M or something because there will be mentions of rapes throughout the story.

**Side notes:** I do need a beta for Japanese; I am Canadian, I know no Japanese only a few words. So if someone is willing to help me out with translations I would really appreciate it (and any reviewers that know the proper spellings of words please let me know), thank you. Also: if anyone wants to beta the my horrible grammar and punctuation that would also be welcomed

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything to do with naruto other than this story which all ideas and plot twists have been of my own creation (unless specified, where as certain ideas will have credit given due)

OrororororororororoStoryGoesHereorororororororororO

"Sasuke!" came a scream. A body was tossed carelessly backwards into a pink haired shinobi. The girl in question threw herself in his path to prevent further damage. Helping the boy kneel, Sasuke halted on all fours, coughing up blood, his hand clutching his stomach.

"Sasuke-kun…" The pink haired girl looked up fearfully at the approaching figure and tried to find her courage.

"kuso..." Sasuke muttered, leaning back on his haunches and surveying the man with the same amount of fear Sakura, his companion, was displaying. This man… was inhuman. He had to be, with strength that made Tsunade-sama look puny in comparison. Sasuke felt himself shaking with suppressed rage. Sakura was injured; somewhere further back there was a body with shoulder length spiky blond hair that now look red with blood. Naruto. He couldn't get up. For the first time since Sasuke had really known Naruto, the blond couldn't get up.

He turned his gaze back to the approaching figure, a man with red hair and black eyes blazing with killer intent. _Not good. Not good._ This wasn't good. Any minute now. Said man was raising his katana. Sasuke closed his eyes. _'MOVE!'_ he shook, he could hear the whistle of metal through air. He used his body to shield Sakura…

Clang.

A Spray of blood.

Sakura and Sasuke slowly opened their eyes to see the body of a black and pale-orange clad boy their own age with a sword part way through slicing into his left shoulder. Narrowly missing his heart, Naruto grinned a sick insane grin that both his companions knew well.

"M… masaka (no way)" Sakura muttered. Sasuke blinked in utter shock as Naruto brought up a single hand and made an unknown, one handed seal…. He couldn't move his left hand thus he was stuck with his right.

_Flashback_

"_eeeeehhhh? What's this? Sasuke! Naruto! Come take a look!" the two boys turned their heads to Sakura who was rifting through the remains of a burnt down home while Naruto and Sasuke paid their respects to the dead family they had come across. They slowly made their way to Sakura who was crouching over a scroll with strange symbols on it._

"_Do you know what it says?" Sakura shook her head_

"_Tsunade-sama taught me some symbols similar to these, but these look older somehow. What do you make of it?"_

"_Lets open it and find out!"_

"_Chata(wait) Naruto!" Sakura and Sasuke prepared to be blasted away as Naruto opened the scroll only to find themselves sadly disappointed. Sasuke tsked and sakura looked over Naruto's shoulder._

"_EHHH!" she cried. "There's nothing on it! What the hell!" Sasuke raised an eyebrow and looked at it, realizing she was right. But Naruto's eyes seemed highly intrigued. _

"_Wait, so you guys can't see what's on it?"_

"_You can?"_

"_Hai." Naruto looked puzzled. Sasuke tried a dispel technique used for some illusions, with no such luck. _

"_Well! I guess I'll learn it and then show you guys later!" Naruto tied the scroll back together and left back to finish the graves, leaving Sasuke and Sakura to cast worried glances at him._

_Later_

"_Oi! I think I got part of it!"_

_Sasuke sighed. "Part of what, Dobe?" But Naruto brushed Sasuke's insult by, something he wouldn't have done if it wasn't really important. Sakura perked up and yawned, stretching a bit in the morning air and settling by the small fire Sasuke had made before she woke. _

"_Well Naru-kun?" Sakura asked, yawning again. "Show us." Even Sasuke was curious._

"_heheh… well I still don't know what it does really, but apparently the technique uses one handed seals."_

"_Technique, Dobe? You wouldn't happen to be talking about that scroll?" Sasuke asked, feeling very unsure about this. And by Sakura's frown, she wasn't sure about it either. Naruto was nodding enthusiastically. Sakura and Sasuke sighed heavily. _

"_Naruto, perhaps its best to leave it be for now. Akastuki is still after us, Orochimaru isn't exactly happy Sasuke left, Konoha isn't happy we left, Tsunade-sama is probably worried sick about us. Let's just concentrate on running for now. We'll come up with a plan later. Okay? Now there's a river not far from here, will you go get some breakfast?" Sakura asked, always the diplomat._

_Naruto sighed, got up and left without a word. Ever since he had gotten that scroll only he could read, Naruto had been acting strange. Even the Kyuubi, to whom Sasuke and Sakura also knew and had met, seemed oddly quiet. _

_End Flashback_

"N-Naruto!" Sasuke called out.

"_heheh… well I still don't know what it does really, but apparently the technique uses one handed seals."_

One handed seals. Sakura caught on and her eyes widened. In a mutual decision they latched onto Naruto. Sakura was trying to make him stop. Unknown jutsu's were dangerous. Very dangerous.

"Naruto! Don't use it!" Naruto didn't hear them, and started forming the seals. The Red haired and black eyed man seemed to think that whatever the blond gaki was doing, wasn't good, and tried to get his sword out of his shoulder. Naruto winced as the blade started to slide out, only to stop and get caught on bone. The Abomination of an opponent abandoned his sword in Naruto and got a good 50 meters of space between him and his prey.

Naruto was panting heavily. He needed juice for this. '_just a little. Please. Just a little more._' And then he, Sasuke, and Sakura were engulfed on red flame as Naruto finished the final one handed seal.

OrororororororororoIntothePastorororororororororO

"..nii-san… w-will you help me work on my aim tomorrow?" a timid and shy 6 year old Sasuke asked. Itachi smiled at his brother.

"can't you do that on your own?" Sasuke pouted.

"but you're better." Itachi chuckled and ruffled his brothers hair

"Sure. But first dinner."

OrororororororororoElsewhereorororororororororO

"neeee! Sa-kura! I'll see you tomooroooo!" little Ino waved goodbye as she headed to her home.

"B-bye Ino-chan" Sakura waved and went inside her home, taking her shoes off, her feet made soft noise on the wooden floor. She passed the kitchen and into the dinning room where dinner was waiting for her. She blushed and apologised for being late, which her parents didn't care much for really, and sat down. Sakura recounted her day with Ino, and how Ino had given her a red ribbon to put into her hair.

OrororororororororoElsewhereorororororororororO

"Monster"

"I can't believe they let him live."

"Don't want filth like that hanging 'round here"

"demon-"

"Disgusting" "vile" "monster" "demon"

"You! Get out of here!" a fist connected to the face of a pale blond haired boy with whiskers. The kid flew backwards, further away from the angry mob and into a dingy alleyway that was too dark to see anything. They all grumbled about demons and monsters before going about their merry way.

But no sooner had they left that there was a suddenly heavy, fearful and powerful chakra coming from the alleyway. Blood red in a spherical shape pulsed like a heartbeat before dispersing as if it never existed. Villagers gaped, no one could move. They heard footsteps slowly coming towards them. Several backed away. One woman screamed at the sight.

There stood a boy, hardly any older that 16 with a Katana blade sticking out of his chest, as if he had sliced through. Blood was dripping down from all sorts of places. The kid had pale skin (likely from blood loss) and blazing azure blue eyes. His hair was incredibly spiky, running to his shoulders making him look like a young Yondaime. His clothing was tattered beyond repair, one could almost make out what he had been wearing; a navy pullover with a dark orange shirt now red and baggy pants what must have once upon a time been navy with an orange stripe down the sides.

"Take….. me…… to…. A….. hos-pi…ta..l.." the strange boy fell over to his side before the frightened throng of people.

OrororororororororoElsewhereorororororororororO

Before little Sakura could get to the red ribbon part though, she was unexplainably surrounded by a blood red chakra. Her parents tried to get close to her, but the strange, demonic Chakra pushed them back. It pulsed in a spherical shape around their daughter before stopping and leaving as suddenly as it had come. Sitting where the Haruno daughter used too, was a 16 year old looking shinobi.

"Who are you? What have you done with our daughter!" Sakura's mother yelled franticly. The girl just looked at them with weary surprise. She struggled to stand as the Haruno's realized how injured this young Shinobi was. There were various Kunai and Senbon needles sticking out of her arms and legs. Blood caked her around her wounds. Her red dress was badly frayed and tattered and her hair was matted with blood.

The older Sakura did the only thing she could.

"..h..hospital…. p…please." Before fainting.

OrororororororororoElsewhereorororororororororO

Dinner at the Uchiha residence wasn't a usually fun affair. It was usually quiet and somewhat strained.

"So, Itachi, how was you're last mission?" Itachi 'humed' and thought before answering his mother's seemingly innocent question. His father glared menacingly at him.

"well-" he was cut off by a pulse of evil chakra coming from his brother. All the Uchiha's got up and grabbed kunai staring in shock as little Sasuke became consumed in a sphere of blood red chakra, swirling with demonic energy before unexplainably leaving.

There, standing where their ignored little son used to be, was a boy that was possibly 16 years old. He wore a black shirt that was in rags around his frame. His right arm looked to be broken, hanging so limply at his side. There was a dried river of blood on his leg, stemming from a gut wound and there was a strange mark on his neck that no Uchiha had seen before.

Without question, the Uchiha head family member, Sasuke's father, fired a kunai at him. Sasuke grabbed it out of the air before doubling over and coughing up blood over his mothers wonderful cooking still untouched on the table.

"Where's my son." Came a surprising voice of one calm mother, who was eyeing the boy as though she were trying to unravel a puzzle. She had her hand out to prevent her husband and her older son from attacking the injured young man before then. Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction before mentally cursing Naruto.

"I need a healer." He said, before the shock became too much and he fainted.

OrororororororororoChapterEndorororororororororO

First chapter. I hope you liked it. Erm, I'm not a very good writer but at least I tried.


	2. 02 Why: Put some cloths on!

**Grace**

**Side notes:** I do need a beta for Japanese; I am Canadian, I know no Japanese only a few words. So if someone is willing to help me out with translations I would really appreciate it (and any reviewers that know the proper spellings of words please let me know), thank you. Also: if anyone wants to beta the my horrible grammar and punctuation that would also be welcomed

Also: I don't know the names of their parents. So, I shall make them up.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything to do with naruto other than this story which all ideas and plot twists have been of my own creation (unless specified, where as certain ideas will have credit given due)

**Replies**:

Mrs. Nozomu Sohma - actually, I'm going to (hopefully) explain that in this chapter so that my madness makes sense. ;

Spork or Foon - thank you very much for the compliment!

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For 5 days nurses ran too and fro in the hospital, caring for 3 strange individuals that had seemingly came out of nowhere. As of yet, none of them had woken. The nurses predicted that the pink haired shinobi would be the first to waken, the black haired one second, but every nurse had doubts on the blond. He had lived (much to the delight of the more giggly of girls) but how was the question. Naturally and by right he should have died with the wounds he had and blood loss. Even more surprising was the fact that villagers claimed he walked out of an alley way. When nurses got their hands on him, nearly every bone in his body had been broken or fractured somehow.

So frankly speaking, the blond shouldn't have been able to move, let along walk. Now he was a comatose mass on a clean white bed covered in bandages. Across from him, were the beds of the other two children. Sandaime had requested that they be held in the same room, so that the amount of eyes needed to check on them would be kept at a minimal. But that didn't stop him from assigning two ANBU squads to watch them night and day.

Sasuke's mother (Yue) and Sakura's mother (Hana) had banded together and refused to leave the strange children's rooms. Their excuse was that they wanted to know where their own children were. But secretly, they felt somehow attached to them. The Nurses and ANBU wouldn't allow more than 2 individuals along side the Sandaime inside the room, so Sakura's father (Saburo), Itachi and Sasuke's father (Yutaka) remained waiting constantly outside.

And Speaking of Sandaime, the old man was making his way down the hall flanked by the two elder nurses who were muttering to him.

"We've never seen anything like it-"

"No one should be able to heal that fast."

"Hmmmm…"

"Hokage-sama!" Sarutobi looked up into the eyes of the Uchiha family head, Yutaka, only to be glared at.

"Have you found anything, Hokage-sama?" Itachi asked politely, filling in his father's rather rude greeting.

"Hmmmm." Sarutobi sighed heavily. "I won't lie to you. It's as if you're brother, Miss Sakura and Uzamaki Naruto have completely vanished of the face of the earth. I am here to wake them up." At this news, Yutaka and Saburo seemed to swell with anger, Itatchi's fist curled and his eyes darkened but he remained silent.

Sarutobi ignored them for the meantime and proceeded into the large room with the 3 sleeping ninja's. He was well aware that the nurses and family members followed. Now, how to make them up?

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Sakura and Sasuke slowly opened their eyes to meet the angry faces of their families and the pensive, amused face of Sandaime. Sakura made a giant sweat-drop and Sasuke frowned. Glancing at each other, they sighed. Before Sandaime could ask any questions however, they answered in unison with equally scratchy voices.

"We don't know."

Yue's gaze seemed to increase as she looked at (what appeared to be) an older version of her younger son. Hana too, seemed to have calmed down when looking at the older version of her daughter. They were just too similar to be brushed aside.

"What do you remember before you came here, then?"

"Um….. well… see…..er…" What could they say without incriminating themselves and/or letting something slip that shouldn't?

"We have to wait for our friend to wake up" Sasuke filled in; jutting his chin out towards Naruto's sleeping form. Sakura frowned and both of them momentarily forgot who was in the room as they started to converse with eachother.

"Yeah but how? He sleeps like the dead most of the time."

"What about Ramen?"

"think they'll let us out to GET ramen? Think man think!"

Suddenly Sasuke smirked, a really evil smirk that threw Sakura on edge.

"AHHH! SAKURA PLEASE PUT SOME CLOTHING ON AND STOP THROWING YOURSELF ON ME!" Sasuke yelled. Everyone twitched; Sarutobi was desperately trying to hide his laughter, while the parents and family members stared in utter shock. Hana and Saburo especially.

"HOLD ON A MINUTE! WHATS GOING ON!" came an unusually high pitch voice from behind as Naruto got tangled in his sheets, and eventually thumped on the floor. Sakura groaned.

"Perverts." She muttered as Naruto realized how he had been duped.

"You guys…. Are the worst people I've had the misfortune of meeting. You know, eventually that's going to stop working on me…." He grumbled and proceeded to stand up without any difficulty from his wounds and walk over to his comrades. But before he could, 2 ANBU stepped in and glared at him.

"Huh?"

"Erm.. Naruto. What kind of jutsu did you use?" Sasuke asked, now that Naruto was fully healed and awake. Naruto paused, scratched the back of his head before replying. He never did the get the chance as the Families made themselves known.

"W-What are you talking about! How come she has my daughter's name! What's going on! Tell me now damnit!" Sarutobi intervened however.

"Miss Haruno, let him explain."

"Well, Akira was going to kill us, so I activated a time jutsu that sent us here. Why?" Naruto scratched the back of his head and frowned. Continuing on before anyone had anymore chance to interrupt again.

"The jutsu is specific to anyone with a demon sealed inside of them, as it required a combination of chakra. To prevent time from being altered it creates a time capsule where the younger versions of ourselves are held because it said something about two of the same person being unable to co-exist in the same time. Erm… what else…. Oh! It also said something about time continuing on from where it left off once we leave. Make any sense?" he asked, scratching the back of his head. There was a tense and almost dead silence in the room when this discovery was made.

"There's something you're not telling us." Broken by the suspicious voice of Sasuke.

"Eh? Hrm.. lemma think on that for awhile." While Naruto pondered, Sakura and Sasuke sighed and flopped backwards on their beds, both thinking the same thing. Now they're stuck!

"You know, Sakura, Sasuke, I kind of envy you guys. You have people who are alive now that won't be in a few years. And you can reconcile with them, whereas I will never have any family." Mused Naruto out loud, sitting on the edge of his bed with a small sad smile that made even the hardened ANBU members lingering in the room feel a twinge of guilt.

"Naruto… you didn't do this jutsu just to save our skins, did you?" Sasuke asked observably. All that Naruto answered with was a knowing smile.

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It was a final 3 more days before Sasuke and Sakura were let out, Naruto got out early because, after hearing who he was, the nurses wanted nothing to do with him. This caused a very bad reaction from Sakura and Sasuke, who foul mouthed the nurses behind their backs about being hypocrites and the likes. Luckily, their respected families did not hear what their new son and daughter had said.

Itachi, Yue, Hana, Yutaka, and Saburo walked behind their older children with somewhat disbelieving eyes. Sasuke and Sakura however, walked calmly down the baren street, secretly waiting for Naruto to make his appearance. And he did just that.

Rounding the corner, there was Naruto, in new clothing, holding out a package of clothing for his comrades as well as two very used leaf Hitai-ate. Sakura looked bemused and Sasuke smirked. Trust Naruto to think of the simple things first.

"You had them this entire time, didn't you?" Sakura asked, walking calmly up to him while their families stayed back a few feet. She was referring to the forehead protectors that Naruto had, he was wearing his, while Sakura's and Sasuke's were folded neatly onto of the pile of clothing held in each of his hands.

"I figured you'd want to get rid of the hospital loans." Naruto grinned, ignoring the hesitant families of Sakura and Sasuke. Naruto was wearing, once again, a dark navy pullover with a dark orange shirt underneath. Sasuke also noticed that Shodaime's necklace was visible and he had gotten earrings (must be trying to look cool) the earrings were, of course, two foxes. Sakura noticed that along with their clothing and Leaf Hitai-ate, there was a fox ring for Sasuke, and a fox bracelet for Sakura.

They smiled at the sentiment. Naruto really was a sensitive guy. They each took the packages and smiled expectantly at Naruto, as if waiting for him to say something. However Naruto merely shrugged.

Hana and Yue were eyeing the spiky blond before them, their opinions of the Fox boy slightly changing by the looks of their kid's faces. But Yutaka, Itachi, and Saburo were still very iffy around him.

"Oi, how about we have lunch together?" Sasuke asked, ignoring the eyebrow twitch his father gave and wince Itachi made. His mother was surprisingly impassive to the suggestion. But before anymore awkwardness could be contained, Naruto shook his head.

"I already went fishing, you guys go on ahead with you're families. I'll meet you at our usual spot for training?" Naruto asked in a hopeful suggestion. Sakura intervened before Sasuke could make a promise.

"Light training, ONLY! I'll be watching you two." Sakura glared, daring them to put her off. So of Course, Yutaka and Saburo had to intervene; there were just way to many interruptions!

"We'll come as well." But the 3 shinobi knew the real reason; they didn't want Naruto to hurtthem. Sasuke narrowed his eyes and Sakura bit her lip.

"Fine. But on the conditionthat you watch only." Naruto said happily before disappearing into a puff of smoke.

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Erm, this wasn't a very good chapter, and for that I apologise. Eh… scratches back of head I don't think that I explained my theory very well… but it'll come up later, I'm sure.


	3. 03 Emotional

**Grace**

**Side notes:** If anyone is willing to help me out on translations that would be wonderful! Thank you. RR please! (if you can)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything to do with naruto other than this story which all ideas and plot twists have been of my own creation (unless specified, where as certain ideas will have credit given due)

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Sasuke supposed that he really was hanging around Naruto too much; he already desired more ramen and less vegetables. He wouldn't tell his mother that however. Side glancing over to Sakura, he noticed her rather bemused smile towards his mothers cooking.

Yep, definitely. They had spent way too much time around Naruto. Simultaneously they sighed. Taking this a sign that their children were board, Hana and Yue exchanged their own glances, and tried to start some conversation in the thick silence.

"So... um.. Sasuke-kun, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?" The glare that met Hana petrified her. Yutaka frowned, Itachi blinked and Yue bit her lip.

"Well, um…. I'm curious as to how my son will turn out." Yue chipped in, sitting down and smiling at Sasuke.

"Your _son-_" he stressed as if he wanted nothing to do with them at all "will be consumed within hate and rage, and devoured by darkness. He will become a murder without care of pleasantries and will delight in causing other people harm" Sakura had a sweat-drop and hanged her head in mock misery. Thinking to herself: _'that wasn't overboard at all'._

"Oh, and he will become an A-rank missing Nin." Sasuke added purely to amusing himself over their faces. Even Itachi looked horrified.

'_Serves you right, _brother_' _he thought with a sneer. His father, Sasuke noted, looked ready to kill him on sight. After all, he was 'the police force of Konoha!' Sasuke snorted in amusement. His mother however, seemed to swiftly get over her shock of this revelation.

"I meant you're likes and dislikes, Sasuke." She smiled, though, a bit forced. They were all on edge. Saburo surprisingly impassive, he was hiding his emotions very well.

"You know my name. The one to save me from the darkness was Naruto. I have no dreams, I have no likes or dislikes. I only have the ambition to kill 5 people" _'as well as the resurrection of my clan.'_ But Sasuke wasn't ready to divulge them that information.

Silence greeted his words and his mother struggled to say something. Miss Haruno came to the rescue.

"Sakura, what about you?"

"Hmmm? Your daughter will not find herself for years, she will be consumed within false images and will be the bane of her team-mates existence. She will run away with her team-mates and become an A-rank missing nin.

You already know my name. The one to save me from myself was Naruto. My only dreams are to surpass Tsunade-sama in the medical field and to always be able to protect my friends. I like plenty of things, and have learned that my dislikes are frivolous. I have to ambition to kill 3 out of 5 people and am a Taijutsu and Genjutsu specialist." She recited calmly, sipping her tea and observing their faces.

Her parents, this time, were the ones shocked beyond belief. They sat there, for several minutes staring at the missing nins that were their older… newer children. More minutes passed, and the tea got cold, the lunch was cold before finally Saburo spoke up.

"And what about _him_" he sneered, as if finding it extremely distasteful to even think about Naruto.

"Him who?" Sakura asked.

"You'll have to be more specific."

"_IT!_" he ground out.

"It? I don't know any It's, do you Sasuke-kun?"

"No. Give us a name. Haruno Saburo." He said menacingly, his eyes narrowed to near killing intent.

"U-Zu-Ma-Ki." Saburo snarled. Sasuke was about to say something biting towards him before Sakura beat him to it.

"Uzumaki eh? I know plenty of those, _father of mine_, if you are trying to refer to our other team-mate, I would demand that you show the same respect to him as you do us. Now who was it wanted us to talk about?" She spoke with a false pleasantry, sugar coated far too sweet with underlying threat of decapitation. Needless to say, it made one helluva impression. Saburo paled, Hana pale, Yue pale, Yutaka was already pale (had been for quite some time) but Itachi suddenly smiled.

"Please tell us about Naruto-san." Itachi. He had a generally interested look on his face. His little brother (not so little right now) and this girl were fiercely protective of the Kitsune, and he was very curious as to why. What could be so special about a demon?

"Naruto is my brother." Sasuke started off by saying. They all looked at him like he was crazy. Sasuke sighed. Better tell them everything. Sakura put a comforting hand on his shoulder before nodding.

"He's our little brother." She said, directing it to the watching audience.

"My entire clan was murdered and killed when I was 7." He plunged on ignoring the horrified, shocked, gasps made and the demands to know who. "I was lost, to say the least. I didn't exactly have anything to live for, I went to school, come home to an empty house everyday. Naruto… heh.. well we weren't friends. No matter how similar we were back then, neither one of us could bring ourselves to that step. So we became rivals. That kept me going. We ended up on the same Genin team together with Sakura." Sasuke was in remembrance mode, staring up at the ceiling now. "It was……. The best fun I had ever had, to tell the truth. Being with Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi-sensei.

"The True Naruto started to come out when we took a C-rank mission only for it to turn A-Rank shortly thereafter. We didn't mind so much. We took many missions. A lot of them ended up being far more dangerous than originally thought. The Chunin exam was interrupted and war broke out between Sound (a village yet to be created in this time era) and Sand towards Konoha. I went out to fight the One tailed Demon Vessel, Sabaku no Gaara." Here Sasuke shuddered. "I stood no chance, especially when he started to change into his demon form.

"And enter Naruto. He fought. He fought regardless of the fact that he could be killed. He fought to save us, and Konoha. The one Tail, Shukaku completely transformed and the only person to fight him was Naruto. And Naruto won. To see Naruto fight… it's frightening. You can't help but be awed at him. " Sasuke drifted off, Letting Sakura tell some of their tale.

"Before Tsunade-sama met Naruto, she was cold hearted and bitter. But Naruto is Naruto. His power to influence people to become better is not something to joke at. He made a bet with Tsunade-sama, and he won, naturally. After that, Tsunade-sama was changed completely. Everywhere he goes, people have a stigma against Naruto because of Kyuubi. But… Naruto is able to change that opinion. Some of the toughest Ninja's in Konoha have had their opinions changed. Ibiki-san, Tsunade-sama, Hyuuga-sama, Neji-kun." Sakura giggled. "Ibiki-san even took Naruto out to dinner once. So of course he ended up footing the bill for 15 bowls of Ramen. 14 of which Naruto ate." Even Yutaka chuckled at that.

The parents (and brother) were rooted on the spot by the emotions that Sakura and Sasuke were letting loose. It was inspiring, and each persons opinion of Naruto was changing. They knew about Kyuubi, and yet they were still friends with him. Perhaps they had judged him too harshly?

"Eventually, I went to join Orochimaru." Sasuke said with a sigh, everyone paled again. How many times could one person be shocked in a day? "Naruto came to stop me, and we fought all out. I remember the feeling of plunging my hand through his chest…. Or finishing him with a suplex… I thought I honestly killed him. That was until Naruto started siphoning a lot of demonic Chakra from Kyuubi. I nearly lost. I walked away and joined Orochimaru, but I made a promises to myself to return. And for 2 and a half years all I thought about was the who stupid I was. Naruto…. Told me that when he's with me… he wonders if that feeling is what it would be like if he had a brother."

"What! I didn't know that…." Sakura interrupted with a surprised look in her face. "that…..oh Naruto….." she sniffed, clearing away tears before they could fall. It suddenly made sense now, how he acted towards her after his crush had vanished. Looking around, everyone was deep in thought, thinking about what it would be like.

"I thought Naruto wouldn't be able to compare. I mean, he never had family, so how could he know what it feels like to lose it? It took me a long time to realize, that Naruto had practically told me that his team was his only family. And that he had lost it, when I walked away. How painful it must have been for him…. To know nothing but hatred all those years without knowing why everyone hated him…. To find someone that appreciated and acknowledged him… only for them to turn their backs to him. Ha… I thought he couldn't compare to me? I can't begin to compare to him." With that he stopped speaking.

"He never showed it though. I was so sad when Sasuke left, so depressed. But all Naruto would do was try and cheer me up. It didn't matter how many times I punched him in the face or turned him down. He never showed me his pain, and only cared about mine. Those 2 and a half years Naruto traveled around with Jiraiya-sama, but he would always come back to me, to ask me how I was feeling. To surprise me at my house with a bowl of fruit… though I think that time Kakashi-sensei made him do it. Naruto will never show anyone how much he's hurting, he can slip up and you can sometimes see it in his eyes. But Naruto… will give up his dreams just to see us alive and happy. He takes care of his friends."

Everyone lapsed into silence. Lunch had come and gone. It was now 2 in the afternoon and no one seemed ready to break the silence. Yutaka tried to say something, but found his words blocked. Itachi had a sombre look in his eyes, reflecting on what had been said and found he couldn't compare to even his brother. He found himself grossly under-prepared for the flood of emotions that he had experienced. Yue and Hana were both silently crying. Saburo's face couldn't be seen because his head was hanging low. Who would have imagined? Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other and sighed. This was going to be a long 'vacation'

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Around Noon time, every Head of every clan in Konoha was gathered (minus an Uchiha), as well as some various other Nins, in a large room, all crowded around and watching events unfold in Sandaimes crystal ball. The Clan heads stared in awe when the two children from the future started to explain their experiences with the Fox brat. And by the end of it, several we're revaluating their own opinions. Some were still sceptical.

"I took him out to dinner?" Ibiki asked, completely amused by this. Frankly, he was one of the still sceptical ones, but it did seem like a very good… fairy tale.

"… did they say Kakashi-sensei?" asked one particular person, several heads turned towards a mask-less ANBU which had, conveniently, actually turned up on time for the 2 hour 'show.' Kakashi blinked and looked at everyone.

"Huh?"

"I wonder how they even survived with him as a teacher." Mutter a heavy set man, who looked to be Choji's father. Several people snickered while Kakashi merely blinked in that bemused yet confused way. Sandaime chuckled.

"We'll wait for them to arrive, I have some things to go over with everyone present anyways."

"Hokage-sama, I have a question if I may." Asked one man in particular who gently brushed his sunglasses back into place.

"Yes, Ebisu?"

"They mentioned the Kyuubi and Naruto-kun being able to use its power. Are you sure we can trust them, Naruto especially, do we know that he can _control_ it?"

Sarutobi smiled. "Yes."

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"We best go meet Naruto now." Sakura said standing and stretching out her numb appendages.

"Let's get changed first." Sasuke added and they both went deeper into the Uchiha main house complex to do just that, leaving their parents and sibling alone. 20 minutes later they returned to find their Parents (and sibling) waiting by the door. Not a word was spoken until they stopped at the main entrance to the Uchiha clan housing district.

Waiting for them looked to be one bored Naruto accompanied with an ANBU. Peeping one eye open he watched his team-mates approach him. He smiled. Who said he didn't have fashion sense? Sakura looked stunning in the deep red he had chosen as a new dress for her. She wore black spandex underneath with mesh sleeves and used the bandage supplied to wrap around her neck. Her black, red, and silver kitsune bracelet glinted in the sun. She looked stunning. Sasuke on the other hand was wearing black pants with various pockets, his shirt a dark purple which made him look eerily vampiric. He had a red ribbon tied to one arm and the ring glinted in the same way Sakura's bracelet did.

"Oi, Dobe." Naruto mock glared at him before smirking.

"Saru-butt called a meeting between all clan head members. We're invited of course." He explained. The ANBU member beside him looked like he wanted to Murder Naruto for being so disrespectful.

"Let's not keep him waiting then." Sakura chuckles and all 3 members of team 7 jumped and disappeared. Leaving Saburo, Yutaka, Hana, Yue, Itachi and the random ANBU thinking the same thing

_Fast!_

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	4. 04 The Sneaky Bunch

**Grace**

**Side notes:** If anyone is willing to help me out on translations that would be wonderful! Thank you!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or anything to do with naruto other than this story which all ideas and plot twists have been of my own creation (unless specified, where as certain ideas will have credit given due)

Mrs. Nozomu Sohma – I agree, for very minor character's names don't matter so much. What's you're opinion on Yondaime's name though? People keep using Arashi… I don't know if that's true or not. ;

AngelHinata – No worries! I'm not changing it to M, there aren't going to be any pairings if I can help it. The only reason I said that in the beginning was because at one point there will be mentions of M material in the story, and of course, I'll edit and put warnings up when/should that occur. but they're only mentions of such things.

Eevetta – Your wish is my command… well... actually only for today XD;

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"You called, Sarutobi-san?" came a slightly nervous voice from the doorway. Everyone turned to view the new arrivals; A pink haired Kunoichi, a spiky blond shinobi and a dark haired shinobi.

Naruto had a silly fox grin on his face, standing shoulder width apart with his head slightly back as if he was observing the occupants in the room. Sasuke on the other hand was leaning against the doorway with his head bowed and slightly to the side and his hands stuffed in his pant pockets giving off an air of impassiveness. Sakura stood beside Naruto on his other side, shoulder witch apart with her arms folded, frowning, but her eyes never leaving Sandaime's eyes.

"Please take a seat" Sarutobi motioned to 6 empty seats remaining in the large meeting room. Everyone was eyeing the trio with awe, skepticism, and some… mistrust. Most people however just seemed to not know what to think of them. Naruto sat near the end with Sakura and Sasuke on either side of him. He sat Indian style on the seat while Sasuke and Sakura sat properly.

"Ah… Ah.. Old Geezer, can you tell me what day it is?" Nartuop asked with a seemingly innocent look on his face.

"14th of September." He responded calmly, wondering what the older Nartuo was so interested in. No one expected him to be so loud and shocked.

"NANI! NO WAY! GAH! Wait.. I have no money! Even worse! GAAAA-" Smack. Sasuke glared at him and Sakura looked ready to throttle him (though with her strength, Sasuke took initiative.)

"What are you on about, Dobe?"

"What! You don't know!" Sakura exasperated a sigh and asked what everyone was thinking

"Know what, Naruto?"

"Its Kakashi-sensei's birthday tomorrow!"

Dead silence. Everyone looked at Naruto like he had sprouted two more heads on his shoulder each covered with mustard and marinara sauce.

"Huh? How did you know that, Naruto-kun?" Came the Copy Ninja's voice from the wall. Naruto looked over and grinned. People's heads turned too and fro like they were watching a tennis match as Kakashi and Naruto exchanged words.

"Why, you told me. Or rather, you will in 6 years."

"Is that so?"

"Yep, but I have no money... and getting you a gift IS important since ya know, you're my sensei.. er.. will be."

"That's not necessary-"

"Nonsense, I insist"

"No really-"

"Sorry we're late, Hokage-sama" interrupted Sabruo's voice as the last 3 attendants of this meeting walked in and took a seat (after bowing to the hokage). But Sandaime just waved the apology off and turned his attention to the tree young shinobi.

"Now that everyone is here, I have something that I wish to ask you."

"Go ahead, geezer!" Naruto exclaimed. Sandaime didn't mind the crude words as much as everyone else in the room. They were, after all, true. He smiled at Naruto cheerfulness.

"I wish to know your reasons for leaving Konohagure." The mood shifted so abruptly that Sarutobi looked monetarily stunned at the killer intent and… guilt radiating off the three. They fidgeted under the watchful eyes of their parents and family friends (and in Naruto's case, Sandaime) Finally Sakura sighed.

"We left it to protect it"

"What do you-" Ebisu started to say.

"From who?" Kakashi interrupted, earning a glare from the closet pervert. Kakashi's eyes were narrowed, sharingan and all. But out of the 3 time travelers, Naruto seemed the most at unease.

"Oroshimaru." Sasuke

"Takako" Sakura

"Akira and Akatsuki." Naruto. The Trio simultaneously sighed in their interrogation in front of every clan head and miscellaneous ninja's in the room. They actually had some foreign hope to avoid this question, after all their respected families didn't seem to care about that minor aspect. Naruto was the one that took initiative to explain.

"those 4 organizations and people are out for our blood, bodies, and demon. Because of their desires, Konohagure has suffered war and crippling battles between Orochimaru and Akastuki especially." He looked pained; surprisingly many felt sympathy for them. "Therefore, because they were after us, mostly just me and Sasuke, we left. Originally it was to be Sasuke and I, however Sakura-chan refused to let us go alone, saying something about family and healers." This earned him a light smack from the pink haired Kunoichi. A very light smack. "We left to draw our enemies away, essentially. It worked for the most part. Orochimaru only attacked once after that, but no lives had been lost, or so Idate-kun told us when we passed through Tea Country. There was also the fact that at the time in which we left, I also considered myself a threat to Konoha. That was because Kyuubi-chan's power was flowing stronger into me, causing me to lose control at times.

"We met Takako and Akira after we left, Takako wanted Sakura and Akira… well… he just... wants me and Sasuke. What for, I rather not find out. We were able to find Sanction in the Snow Country under disguise. The only person who knew who we were was Princess Koyuki."

"Kakashi found us there not long after. He tried to make us come back. It was only a month into our absence." Sakura added.

"He didn't succeed" What more could Sasuke say? It wasn't like he was going to give details. Kakashi didn't need to know how he was defeated (though, Koyuki walking out of her room in only a towel was rather a stroke of luck… poor Kakashi must have lost a few pints of blood) this memory caused Sasuke to snicker lightly, Naruto to grin and for Sakura to throw annoyed looks at the boys. They all lapsed into silence, processing this new information and weighing it. The ninjas gathered didn't know this wouldn't affect the future at all, according to Naruto. But then, there's the snag. Naruto. He was hiding something, this Sarutobi Hokage could tell. What startled him was that he didn't mind at all.

"Every Shinobi is faced with a difficult decision." Brought up a voice, unsurprising to Naruto, it was Nara Shikamaru (yes, the father of Shikamaru, poor kid was named after his father). "It is against the principal of the shinobi to abandon one's own village. However, when the lives of so many hang in the balance of that decision…" he trailed off for a moment. "Must have been painful." Was what he ended with. Everyone lapsed into silence once more.

"There is also the question of the Nine-tails-" Sandaime's quiet question was answered before he could ask it truly. Naruto smiled softly.

"Not. A. Threat. Any parent within their right mind would seek vengeance for the death of their kittling; such was the case with Kyuubi's new born son. A one tailed fox demon that was hunted and killed by unknown Ninjas. Kyuubi trailed the scent to Konoha. Demons aren't known for getting along with humans, but relatively both species leave each-other alone. Demons don't like humans by habitual rule, for me, I can understand why he attacked and lost his common sense all the while." Naruto grew sad, his eyes pained and the blue eyes deepened.

"It's painful to lose a precious person…"

Sasuke gave him a sympathetic look while Sakura touched his hand briefly. And in a few moments of saddened silence Naruto was cheerful again.

"Kyu-chan doesn't like humans still, but he has a soft spot for me and my brother and sister here. So to help us, he has taught us some very cool heavy Jutsus. Sasuke always reviews the battles we fight in, and teaches our enemies movements and techniques, while Sakura reads in texts and scrolls and teaches what she learned from them as well as healing techniques, and I teach what Kyuubi-chan teaches as well as take Jutsus and alter them to our needs. We're a dream team…. Hahaha!" he scratched the back of his head while Sasuke smirked and Sakura beamed her lovely smile. Others were not so impressed (Sandaime was though!)

"Then there is another thing I must ask, or rather ask OF you."

"You want us to help with the coming war with Cloud and Stone, right?" Sasuke. Everyone blinked, and immediately people started speaking at once. How did they know that? Were they spies? Sandaime tugged his hat over his eyes while sinking slightly in his chair. Geez, didn't they realize that as time travelers from the future, that it would be a given that Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura would have such knowledge. Although the stone bit was surprising.

"Quiet!" Sarutobi wasn't used to yelling, and the effect was immediate. Even Anko and Naruto stopped trying to pound each-others heads in; although he would have paid to see that.

"Yes, our spies have confirmed that cloud is on the move. I was not, however, aware that stone was involved." He turned a meaningful gaze towards the three. Sakura explained.

"The first attacks won't be with allied accompaniment. But cloud will be beaten so severely on Konoha soil that they will go to stone for aid. Konoha will lose 50 of its shinobi during the second attack. But will come out on top. However, I take it with this information, you wish for us to tip the scales?" Sandaime nodded. People were muttering, Hisashi, Kakashi, Shikamaru, Itachi, Yutaka and Saburo were all surprisingly impassive. Anko was licking her lips, Ebisu looked worried, and Ibiki was frowning.

Sakura exchanged a look with Naruto and Sasuke, using her hands to sign to them.

-_What's your verdict, Naruto?_- Sakura asked.

-_Good Practice at least.­_-

-_So it's a yes, then?_- Sasuke asked, and Naruto nodded.

"We'll help. We know Cloud will attack Christmas eve, but we're unsure on the date for the combined attack." Sakura spoke over everyone, effectively quieting them. By now they had all gotten used to their presence (at the very least)

Sarutobi let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "Thank you.-"

"Oi! I have a condition for this though." Naruto spoke up, earning a lot of glares. Sasuke perked an eyebrow and Sakura looked surprised. They hadn't been told about this.

"And what would that be, Naruto-kun?" Anko asked in a falsely sweet voice. Naruto grinned evilly, causing many to be on instant guard and quite a few to shiver. Sandaime had a feeling he would like this Naruto quite a bit. He had… flare.

"Everyone in this room must learn off me, Sakura and Sasuke in order to fight at all in this war."

Outrage. Pure outrage. Naruto was grinning ear to ear stupidly while Sasuke and Sakura hung their heads in shame. Sakura was itching to cleave Naruto in two, but alas, all their weapons (aside from Akiras katana) had been left behind in their time. Damn. Sandaime Hokage started to chuckle, earning the attention of a few heads. And then he started to laugh outright and capture everyone's attention.

"Deal. I look forward to see what we will learn from you. For now, disperse and spread the word. We, who are here, will meet tomorrow at dawn, training area with the poles." Sarutobi was still laughing as everyone left. However, Naruto and Sakura and Sasuke remained. When they were alone, the 4 of them stared at each-other.

"I should warn you, I don't know about who killed you're clan, Sasuke-kun, but Orochimaru isn't a missing-nin in this time-"

"I know." It looked like it took a lot of effort for Sasuke to get that out. Sandaime was surprised. When everyone had left Sasuke seemed to let his emotions show. He was barely keeping it together.

"If I can stand the one who killed them, I can stand Orochimaru... _again_" he got out rather forcefully. Naruto frowned and Sakura looked far more worried than before.

"Saskue, think of this as a reason to beat both of them up…. If you can. Uchiha isn't much these days." This earned him a snarl. Sakura sighed and sat down again, looking tired and weary. Sarutobi suspected it was from their lingering injuries.

"Good practice at least." He mused to himself out loud, earning some rather disbelieving looks from the Haruno heir and the Uchiha second. "What?"

"That's what Naruto said about the war." Sakura chuckled out.

"Are you saying I'm like Saru-geezer?"

"Naruto, I'm not a monkey."

"Notice he didn't deny he was a geezer!" this was enough to set the 4 of them laughing until their eyes were leaking. After a good while later, before they left Sarutobi pulled out a pouch with some lingering words.

"This is for Kakashi's gift, take it as a loan. Also, will you be up to teaching tomorrow?"

"I am, Sakura and Sasuke need a bit more time, about a week. But we have until January to train everyone." Sandaime jerked up at that.

"I thought you said December?"

"Hrm? We lied." Simple. For a moment Sarutobi looked startled and tried to find the logic behind that. Noticing the grins on Sakura and Naruto's faces he chuckled. Sneaky kids. They lied about the date to make everyone work harder. Noticing they were gone, Sandaime indulged himself another good laugh at that. Sneaky, Sneaky indeed.

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Hehehehehe…. Surprise surprise… I came out with another one this week oo


	5. 05 Show off

**Grace**

Standard Note and Disclaimer apply.

Mrs. Nozomu Sohma – hehehe... now I know what the other two names are grin if you know any other names of minor characters, that would be awesome

Eevetta – thank you very much. I try. -

zimori – Gomen gomen! I'm sorry if you think that, I find that if everything is explained at once it takes away from the surprises later on. I'll try and see if I can make some things more clear though.

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That night Naruto didn't get any sleep. While Sasuke and Sakura were resting in their nice comfy beds with indoor heating, Naruto was resting high in a tree branch panting. He had spent the last 4 hours in the dead of night and early morning to reconstructing the training area to suit his needs. A small mountain of ice and snow now stood erected and proud surrounded of course, by more snow and ice. It had taken the better part of his 4 hours to figure out a way to prevent the snow from melting come morning. He sighed and wondered how his Kage Bunshin was doing haggling the ANBU that were following him. Probably giving them hell, he allowed himself a small chuckle at that.

None the less, Naruto took advantage of the spare time he had to himself. He sighed again and stared up at the canopy, watching the stars in the cloudless sky. During the times he kept night watch he passed the time watching the stars. A habit he had surprisingly picked up from Kyuubi. He would often get lost in them. Comforted in the thought that no matter where he was, someone he cared about would see the same stars as he. It made him smile.

Had anyone come upon him at that moment would have been flabbergasted at the sight. His body was obscured by darkness and his skin illuminated as pale as the moon. Those seep blue eyes were contented and yet as mysterious as the sky reflected in them. Blond locks fell gracefully around his face. And Naruto was, at that moment, an angel.

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Before the sun cracked the black sky, Naruto reinforced the genjutsu around his ice arena. Why? He wanted to surprise them. Honestly he wasn't sure about his teaching capabilities. He just hoped they would listen to him. He jumped down from his tree top and onto the middle post, smiling at a long ago memory of being tied up at this very spot. His original opinion of Kakashi was still the same: too cool for school.

His smile turned into a feral grin as Sakura and Sasuke arrived on either side of him. It looked like they had sneaked out. He used his hands to sign to them in their own unique form of code language.

-_Ice Arena behind us. Under genjutsu, don't act surprised._- at the last remark Sasuke scoffed at the mere thought. But then again, Naruto probably created a mountain to show off. Sakura however, only rolled her eyes as she leapt down onto the ground and took a seat. Sasuke decided to stand on the ground and lean up against his post while Naruto crouched down on his. It was ingrained in them to strike a cool 3 man pose.

And they didn't even have to wait long. Coming on the sun's first rays was Anka, Ibiki, Hisashi, the Elder Shikamaru, Inoishi, Chouza and Sarutobi. Minutes ticked by as others started to straggle in, most only coming out of respect for the Hokage. But it was a start. After an hour of waiting and several loud complaints from Anko the infamous Maito Gai and Copy-ninja Kakashi arrived. One looked to be dragged by the other (bet you can't guess who).

"FINALLY!" Naruto yelled pointing to Kakashi. The ninja in question raised an eyebrow and waved in a rather harassed and disgruntled manor. Gai had that effect. But Naruto was grinning from ear to ear in a rather feral way, Sasuke had that 'I-know-everything' look and Sakura had her usual soft yet sweet smile on.

"So, before we begin today, Sakura, Sasuke?" Naruto asked, passing them a meaningful look. Sakura ruffled in her backpack and produced a small one person cake while Sasuke took his arm out from behind him and produced a thin rectangular package.

"Happy Birthday!" they all said in unison, Naruto the loudest. Kakashi blinked. He never did have a birthday…the jounin around them were all sporting looks of amusement, disbelieve and anger while the Copy-nin was standing there scratching the back of his head.

"Arigato-" he mumbled half-heartedly as he took a bite of his cake, and told Sakura she was a good cook before turning his attention to his gift. Aside from Gai, no one really did go out of their way to get him something. So when he opened the box he nearly dropped it from the sentiment. There, softly laid against white silk was an obsidian black kunai. But this Kunai was very special. Before the handle met the blade there were 3 pieces of doe skin leather, each respectively dyed red, yellow, and blue. But not only that, the handle itself had carvings in gold lettering. It spelled out "Honour, Loyalty, Pride," and "Friendship." Kakashi, oddly enough, felt honoured.

"Arigato." He said, but this time he meant it. Who cares if he'd get teased about it? And while others milled around the copy-nin and demanded to see the Kunai, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura used their keen senses to feel out each individual's chakra levels, even those who suppressed theirs. Naruto also noted that the 3 sanin where here as well. He motioned to Sasuke.

-_let me deal with them._- Sasuke only jerked his head in agreement before putting his mask back on. Naruto then stood up on his pole and cleared his through. Nothing happened, each Jounin wasn't paying attention. Well,. That was a lie, a few were. Naruto sighed and started making hand seals, purposefully keeping his chakra condensed until the final seal. But by then, everyone was caught in the jutsu. The ground had seemingly liquefied and solidified in the blink of a second, causing everyone to be knee deep and unable to move. This had the desired effect of everyone's attention now being on Naruto.

"A Shinobi who does not follow the rules is trash

A Shinobi who does not pay attention is trash

A shinobi that does not follow orders is TRASH." He blasted them with killer intent and disappointment. They fiddled like little children. Narutos eyes blazed, and even Sakura and Sasuke were adding to the atmosphere with their own disapproving eyes.

"If you are the representation of Konoha Shinobi, I shudder to think how week the next generation will be. Are you trash then? Do you deserve to be nothing but the trash you are? Well?" he waited, several wouldn't meet his eyes. The three Sanin were transfixed on him. True, they had been told the situation, but not all of it. It was amazing how the Kyuubi container was able to shift the mood in a single second.

"No?" he asked again. His eyes narrowing. "Then prove to me you are not trash. Line up, single file in a straight line facing Sakura-chan." From there he released his genjutsu and let her take over.

"I will be testing you're strength." She told them, eyeing certain stronger individuals. "One by one you are to punch into my hand with all the strength you can muster. Understand? Now who will go first?" she calmly asked earning a lot of appraising looks. Was the pink haired one crazy? Even though Sarutobi knew Haruno Sakura was still healing, he decided to take a leap of faith and go first. The both bowed; Sandaime took up his fighting stance while Sakura merely put up her open fist. He pulled back and put all his force into his punch and let it rip. The result surprised even him as she caught it without the barest hint of movement from the impact.

"Yush! Very good, you can go stand over there now, by Sasuke-kun." She smiled at him, motioning for the next person. It didn't take long to test everyone out. Even the Sanin didn't make much impact on Sakura, except Tsunade who was last. Being the medical ninja that she was, she immediately saw the signs of pain and injury, thankfully healing quite nicely, but the fact that his young girl, hardly 16, was taking blows in a single hand while injured was truly amazing to her; so when she punched Sakura's hand (who had changed hands to her stronger right hand) she didn't not actually use all her strength. But the resulting aftershock made the newest jounins gape and the older jounins to blink.

"That wasn't your full strength, Tsunade-sama" Sakura spoke evenly with a smirk. Tsunade bristled.

"Yeah well, it's obvious you're recuperating from injuries." Sakura chuckled and turned back to Naruto and gave a small nod. Yesterday night they had all gone over their plans for teaching their superiors, this was only the beginning. Now that Sakura had impressed everyone (and she was the weakest of the group) eyes now turned to Sasuke, who merely jutted his chin to Naruto who began talking.

"This winter will be the first true winter Konoha has seen in the last 10 years. And it'll be a doozy. Konoha will literally be covered in snow and ice. Therefor, we are going to teach you how to best fight in these conditions, as well as jutsus that are ice and snow specific. We've spent the night creating-"

"You spent all night creating it, we slept, remember?"

"Right, right.." Naruto scratched the back of his head at Sasuke's reminder. "Anywas, I created this training area for our uses-" he was interrupted again, this time by Chouza.

"How does this help us?" He waved around to the blooming trees, the bright blue sky warm sun and overall pleasant surroundings. Narutos grin turned feral again, but this was more intense.

"Seems no one here is able to detect my genjutsus" he chuckled. "'Lo and behold, you're new training area!" he waved his hand and the original genjutsu disappeared, revealing a small mountain of ice and snow, the air went below freezing the wind further cooled everyone down and all found themselves standing either on ice, or in snow. Sarutobi was the first to recover from shock and chuckled. Everything these kids did was a shock to everyone else. No… everything Naruto revealed was a shock to everyone else. Sasuke and Sakura were moderate in comparison to how much the blond gaki showed off. He was officially the most surprisingly Ninja.

"Well? Since everyone looks like they need a warm up, 200 laps around the arena, now!" he urged them, striking the good guy pose and grinning stupidly. Naruto thought to himself: '_I'm going to like teaching…_' Naruto jumped off as everyone started their laps, a few even grumbling.

"How are your arms" Sasuke asked, trying to look indifference and failing. Sakura, who had long since gotten beyond her crush smiled.

"Not as bad as I first thought, I'm using healing chakra to fix the torn muscles. They're a weak bunch in the physical department."

"Good, because I have an alteration to our plans a bit; Sasuke, how do you feel to fighting Tsunade? And Sakura, you Jiraiya?" Naruto asked calmly, his eyes dancing with merriment that caused Sakura to grumble and Sasuke to frown. As much as they loved Naruto, sometimes they downright hated him. Seeing their looks, he laughed

"Oh buck up. Now here's what we'll do…."

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ahahahaha. Oh goodness, this is truly an all-time record. 3 chapters in a week. ; I'm only slightly shocked. I'll let you know now, my updating schedules are random, so don't get used to the quickness… But, anyways, I Hope you like it! Oh, and please review, it lets me know how I'm doing.


	6. 06 Roommates

**Grace**

Stand Disclaimer and Note still apply.

Mrs. Nozomu Sohma – thank you SO much for that site. It's been really helpful. As for the grammar, well... it's actually much worse hence why I use word, but word.p. can't detect everything ; I try to catch them though.

Thank you everyone else for your reviews. I look forward to reading them every time. (actually, I think it's the only thing I look forward too.. :p )

Note: I think some people are going to be moderately disappointed by this chapter

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"No."

"Eh? But... why." Naruto asked, his face falling into a pouting look. He had just outlined his plan to them only to have it coldly rebuked. Sakura sighed and rubbed her temples, dimly aware that the fast runners were around their 50th lap. Sasuke started to explain.

"Its not that we don't want to do it-"

"It's that we can't." Sakura finished. She fixed him with a piercing gaze. "Naruto, having everyone punch me was about as much as I could do today, what you're purposing wouldn't be beneficial to our health-"

"Being ninja isn't beneficial to our health either." Naruto muttered, clearly not getting it. Sasuke growled.

"We are still recovering, baka! We don't have mad healing skills that you do, I would love to kick their butts and unfortunately I don't want to end up in the hospital again, get it? Sakura and I are just not up for it. Maybe next week."

"Doing it next week would defeat the purpose of doing it at all." Sasuke had to agree with that point, Naruto's plan was something devious. Suddenly Sakura grinned her evil smile and motioned them to come closer.

"Actually, we can improvise… we won't challenge the Sanin for now, but Naruto, you can still have fun….." and here she detailed her plan, with pointers from Sasuke. Maybe they wouldn't know what hit them after all.

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By now, only an hour had passed making it 8 in the morning with the rest of the world waking up. Jounin, Sanin and Hokage were all gathered once again after completing their laps in the frigid atmosphere their 'instructor' had created. But said 'instructor' was standing once again on his pole and grinning. But this grin wasn't playful, it had a certain malice to it.

"What now, oh great master of…. Of... blondness!" Anko, predictably. Naruto fixed her with his wicked eyes, no longer blue but purple. However this went relatively unnoticed by everyone as the red leaking into his eyes wasn't enough to change the shade noticeably. But his grin caused some of the hardened Jounin to shift slightly.

"Now? You get sorted."

"Sorted?" Orochimaru had asked this, causing Naruto to gaze to the back of the group. Perfect, most were unconsciously in the right positions.

"Sorted." He confirmed. He clapped his hands once and several circles lit up. Each circle was a ring of icicles, each generating a type of shield varying in color. There was one Circle behind the group, opposite to Naruto and his poles, and then 3 circles lining them, officially trapping them. People were instantly on guard looking around wearily, several were intrigued, Sandaime, Orochimaru and Jiraiya the most.

"Kanashibari no jutsu" Naruto said very softly, his hands forming only the last seal of the jutsu. He knew that Sakura and Sasuke had used the same jutsu, themselves hidden behind the 'cages' and the effect was immediate as everyone was frozen, unable to move. A lot of cursing could be heard.

"Tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu" Naruto said softly again, barely above a whisper. Hundreds of clones came to light and the Jounins looked on in horror. Even the Sanin were shocked.

"GO!" Naruto shouted. And the clones got to work. With kanashibari in effect, there was minimal resistance as the Naruto clones attacked, punching and kicking relatively lightly but enough to send each person into a certain cage. One Naruto clone was trying to send Gai into one of the cages with a green shield, but Gai was having none of it, and soon the real Naruto had to jump in as the clone was dispersed. Truth be told, he had expected more people to be able to resist kanashibari, but it appeared not. He made a mental note to have resistance training taught to everyone.

Gai was roaring something about betrayal before he was silenced with a quick genjutsu which Gai promptly fell for and advanced forward trying to attack an illusion of Naruto before the genjutsu ended and he found himself in one of the green cages.

The Hokage, the Sanin, Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi had also managed to escape Kanashibari, but not the all Naruto clones. They were all doing an ok job of destroying the clones, but when Tsunade's fist was caught by the real Naruto they all paused. Naruto managed a good kick, sending Tsunade into the yellow cage. While the others came at him, he used Suiton Kaihodan jutsu and shot streams of water at them, which froze in the air after Naruto did a second seal with his hand thus becaming ice projectiles and sending Jiraiya, Orochimaru and Kakashi, (who all had not expected the water to turn to ice) into the yellow cage, catching Sarutobi and Itachi on the way.

Now everyone was sorted into a cage.

The clones dispersed as Naruto released the jutsu and he observed. Sasuke and Sakura came out of their hiding places and glances around. The Shields prevented any noise from coming out, so it was pleasantly quiet.

"Not bad." Sasuke complimented, even now, compliments were rare from him. Naruto grinned.

"Eh, they were caught off guard and it's not perfect." He paused, clapped his hands again and the shields flared with their individual coloured lights.

"QUIET! Now, if you will allow me, I will explain. You have now all been sorted into categories based on your skills. For the last two hours or something, we have evaluated your speed, strength, skill and endurance. Green corresponds to Taijutsu, Pink corresponds to Genjutsu and Blue corresponds to Ninjutsu. To my left are those with low chakra and to my right are those with high chakra. And facing me is Yellow, which holds those who excel in the 3 areas.

"Those who are special jounin in the area of Taijutsu or just really good at Taijutsu will be trained by Sasuke to strengthen their Nnnjutsu and genjutsu. Those who are good at Genjutsu and Ninjutsu will train with Sakura on their Taijutsu. And those in the Yellow cage will train with me." He paused, letting this all sink in, most had stopped running their mouths.

"As for attacking you, well…it was fun. Now, each group will be taught on a certain day of the week. Seeing as today is Thursday, we'll start rotating on Monday. Fridays will be the low chakra Taijutsu group with Sasuke, Saturday will be the low chakra genjutsu and Ninjutsu groups with Sakura, Sunday will be the high chakra Taijutsu group, followed by the High chakra genjutsu group on Monday, and the high chakra Ninjutsu group on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursdays will be the Yellow group.

"On certain days I will help the other two teachers. Also, since we all have missions to accomplish, it's understandable that not everyone will be able to come. We'll make special preparations for those people. When it is your day to be trained, you are to be here at dawn, training will take until 1 or 2 in the afternoon, leaving you all enough time to do some missions." Naruto released the shields and the icicles that had generated them collapsed into blocks of ice.

"So, we'll start the rotation Monday (didn't I just say that?). Remember what group you're in! Also, for those who rely on bloodlines, don't. I won't allow it. You're to learn at the pace of everyone else." He eyed certain people, Uchiha and Hyuuga especially. People grumbled, many glared, some walked off without a second glance. Now the test began, who would swallow their pride enough to admit he had surprised them? Ah, well, Naruto grumbled, he had until next week to prepare what he was going to teach those who were already extremely good.

Turning his back to everyone he motioned for Sasuke and Sakura to meet up at the poles, he wanted to talk to them.

"Sakura, Sasuke have either you tried to-"

"Ahem." Naruto looked over, dimly aware of the narrowing of Sasuke's eyes and the twitch in his fingers. Even Sakura looked more stoic than usual. Naruto supposed it would be hard to act normal in front of him (though how Sasuke managed to handle Itachi was mind boggling)

"Oh? Orochimaru-sama! What's up?" he asked in his usual cheeriness. The other two Sanin were with him, Hokage was off to one side talking with Saburo and Yutaka while Kakashi and Itachi were waiting silently.

"N_a_ruto-kun, I'm curious to the jutsu you used to come here…" Orochimaru told him in his sickly husky lined voice that team 7 hated.

"Hmmm. Nope. _Sorry_. Can't tell you. Trade secret, ya know? Bes_i_des, its bloodline only, ya know?" only partially true. But then again, a small lie couldn't hurt.

"Why not! If its bloodline, you can still tell us!" was Jiraiya always this whiny? Naruto wondered while fixing a very amused look on his face.

"aaahhha. No. Sorry but it's my secret. Was there anything else you need?" he asked politely, his exuberance loosing its strength every second. He had to strain to look happy.

"Well then, what will you teach us, twerp?" Naruto's eye winced subtly at that. He kept reminding himself that Tsunade didn't remember him, and wouldn't know him for quite some time.

"Teach? Not much, just a few ice jutsus, most of the time we'll be sparing, using different aspect of your skills. For example, sparing using medical techniques, or sparing using only one element. There isn't much I can actually teach you aside from techniques in countries that haven't been created yet, so if you don't even want to show up, I don't mind." He told her plain and simple. He was after all, being honest. Jiraiya was eyeing him, probably because of his resemblance to the 4th, Tsunade was eyeing him the same way Orochimaru was, which was the look that a stranger would give an impudent child. That 'your-nothing' smug look.

"Well, looks like Saburo and Yutaka want to head home, you best go Sakura, Sasuke." Naruto said, it was true, but it wasn't his reason for sending them away, having Itachi and Orochimaru in the same vicinity was wearing incredibly thin on Sasuke. Out of the corner of his eye he saw them nod stiffly and make their retreat.

Personally, Naruto was glad Sasuke had such good control of his emotions; they would have blown all his careful planning and secrets. But he was worried, how long could Sasuke continue up the charade? It was pure luck that it would be Naruto dealing with Itachi and Orochimaru at the same time, and he had no intention of switching. He'd do what it would take to keep Orochimaru from Sasuke, even if he was reportedtly 'not evi yet.' He broke out of his thoughts when Sandaime approached him, giving off smiles to his former students who smiled back.

"Naruto, I've been wondering since you left the hospital 4 days ago, where have you been staying?" Unsurprised by the question, he shrugged.

"Nowhere, I've slept here, and fished in the river nearby. Since my younger self is an orphan in and orphanage, I can't exactly go there and say I need my room, now can I?" Naruto yawned into his palm.

"Soka, well I have an apartment for you, if that is you can stray from your outdoorsy personality." Outdoorsy? Is that even a word? Naruto chuckled.

"What's the catch?" he asked, eyeing the old man.

"Jiraiya will be staying with you, with Tsunade and Orochimaru across the hall." Naruto was having a difficult time with that concept. Eventually he nodded. No wonder the Sanin had stayed then.

"Sure. By the way, do you have any missions I can do in-between teaching?" Now it was Sarutobis turn to ponder the possibilities. Eventually after what appeared to be some serious deliberation, he nodded.

"C and B rank for now, accompanied always by Kakashi. Report at the burro tomorrow at 8."

"Kaaaay." He claimed. Grabbing the keys Sandaime had dangling in front of his eyes. "Oh, and Saru-geezer? Wear your armour Wednesday, your going to need it." As Kakashi took off to guard Sandaime as he went back to his dwellings, Naruto turned to his new roomies.

Immediate sweat drop appeared. "Soooo… do either of you know where it is?" Jiraiya sighed.

"This way, Baka." Naruto just grinned sheepishly at that and followed him. It was going to be a long weekend. Dimly, He was aware that he had forgotten to ask Sasuke and Sakura the rest of his important question.

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Leaving it here for today. Hmmm thinking about doing another Naruto fanfiction… but it'll be vastly different. I only have some clue as to what to do, and some clue as to how to end this one. (oh don't worry, end isn't going to be for awhile yet… I hope, heck.. maybe I'll write a trilogy?... that would be cool... yeah)

Time for a nap i think.


	7. 07 Comrades

**Grace**

Standard Disclaimer and Note still apply.

Thank you all very much for your reviews!

A/N: just to let you know, there is a bit more action in this, but you'll have to decide that for your-selves. Also! Erm, I think I know what my next fanfiction(s) are going to be about, I just need indefinite inspiration to write aside from free time XD;

Warning: eh, some death in this chapter, as well as a mention of the female body. Don't worry, nothing too harmful.

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The apartment was nice looking, his and Jiraiya's came with a small kitchen, living room, 2 bedrooms and one bathroom. It was the fact that it had one bathroom that Naruto complained about.

"What was he thinking! Only one bathroom!" he glared at Jiraiya, fully blaming him for it, while Jiraiya glared back. Naruto turned away and grumbled to him-self; something about old men and hot water before heading back into their shared kitchen and ruffling through the cabinets for food.

Nothing but fruits and vegetables in the fridge, and crackers in the cabinets; Naruto's eye twitched at this. No. Ramen. He sighed; he really, really, _really_ wanted Ramen. Living on the road Sakura had destroyed all his Ramen stash in a fit of anger at him. Hence he hadn't had the delicious dish of life in quite some time.

"Whats wrong kid?" interrupted a voice from his morose thoughts of missing Ramen. Naruto looked at him with his 'pity-me' pathetic face.

"No Ramen! Can you believe it! It's horrible!" He exclaimed flapping his arms to induce how 'horrible' it was. He pouted cutely to Jiraiya who had this amused look on his face.

"Sorry kid, can't help you there, I've got work to do." And with that the Sanin turned to leave. Completely missing Naruto's evil grin plastered on his face.

"If you buy me 3 bowls of ramen I won't tell Tsunade that you were pe-" he was abruptly cut off by Jiraiya's hand. He looked horrified by what Naruto had said.

"Shhhhh! What if she hears you!" a split second of thought would have saved Jiraiya from revealing that had indeed been his intention. His face flattened into a frown. He stared at Naruto, weighting his options before huffing and marching, like a 3 year old having a tantrum, out the door.

"Well, are you coming or not?" he called out irritably. Naruto merely chuckled as he followed. Jiraiya was really easy to manipulate sometimes.

When they arrived at Ichiraku's, Naruto made sure to have Jiraiya pre-pay for his meals before leaving, that way he couldn't dump the bill on Naruto 'accidentally.' By this time in Naruto's life, he had long since learned to eat slowly, and so by the time Jiraiya had a bit of Sake and left, Naruto was still finishing his first bowl.

He was in the middle of eating his second when Sakura arrived. She sat down wordlessly and ordered her own bowl. For awhile neither of them spoke.

"Hey." She said at last, watching him as he finished his bowl and ordered his third. Sakura's was still coming. Naruto looked at her from the corner of his eye, before turning his body to face her fully.

"Something's bothering you." He stated as a mater-of-fact. She slumped in her seat.

"Its Sasu. I… I'm worried about him, that's all." She admitted while Naruto looked pensively downward. He hummed at her use of their partial names.

"Me too. God knows how much the mind can actually take, ya know?" This seemed to make Sakura deflate even more at that thought. Naruto smiled.

"Demo, Sasu is strong. He's made mistakes in the past and he's learned from them. Sasu isn't about to turn down a path he's walked before if he doesn't want to." He told her brightly. But Sakura still looked down.

"But… its not that. I'm worried that with these constant reminders of his past, he'll eventually snap again." At this Naruto frowned. He was worried about that too. It took a moment for it to click in his mind on just what those reminders were. He sighed, taking a bite of his third ramen while Sakura dug into hers.

"Relatively speaking, Sakura-chan, He only has to deal with one reminder, and I'll be dealing with the others. If it gets to be too much, we'll send him out on a mission to cool down, ne? Besides, I trust him." Sakura visibly started at the last thing Naruto said. She remembered the time of Sasuke's betrayel and couldn't help but be awed by Naruto proclamation (even though he had said it before). For him to trust someone like that after so much pain being alone and then betrayed… he really was something special.

"I'll try to have more faith in him." She muttered. She trusted Sasuke as well. But how long could he last, hiding all of his emotions?

"You still live at the same pace, right?" Naruto asked, drowning his bowl at the same time as Sakura. She answered his question on Autopilot.

"Hai." She was still thinking, missing Naruto's grin.

"Then I'll walk you home." he told her, not asked, told her. She glared at him before giving up. Arguing with Naruto was utterly pointless at times. And even though she could take care of herself, Naruto just couldn't be swayed sometimes.

They walked in silence down the streets. It was still sunny outside, only into mid-day so far, and already so much had happened to make it seem like the day was over. Sakura's eyes were glued to the ground before her feet as she walked, while Naruto's eyes were skyward.

"Storm clouds." He muttered under his breath, this being the only thing he said on their trek into the living quarters of Konoha. It was a peaceful walk, unstrained by tension, even if Sakura was depressed. At the Haruno residence, They both stopped, neither one changing the position of their heads.

"Sakura-chan." Naruto spoke up, eyes still a fixated on the sky.

"Hm?" she looked at him. His eyes were so blue, so expressive that when the way he was looking upward, he appeared almost mystical.

"We are a team. Where one goes, the others will follow. We as a team have suffered and will continue to do so for to suffer is to live as a part of a whole. I won't let bad things happen to my family." There was that determined look in his eyes when they descended onto her face; the same one that encouraged his allies, and frightened his enemies. "That's a promise."

'_oh Naruto…_' Sakura thought, rubbing away the tears that threatened to fall and hugged him tightly and briefly before fleeing into her house with a somewhat evil smirk on, leaving behind a red faced and nose bleeding Naruto on the sidewalk. He coughed. Right, now… time for a nap. Cleaning the blood off his face, he left for his apartment.

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Naruto slowly opened his eyes and took in his surroundings. He started to dim his chakra to resemble that of a person still sleeing before getting up from his bed and putting on his clothing. He paused, using his senses to make sure all 3 Sanin were still asleep before creating 3 shadow clones. One took up his pj's and put them on, takeing up his position on the bed. The real Naruto opened his window and motioned for the other 2 to follow him. Once they were out the two clones disappeared into the night, going to their destinations.

One left to Sakura's house, while the other clone left to the Uchiha compound. The real Naruto jumped away, heading towards the large Hokage monument. He stayed on Yondaime's head and in the shadows created by Sandaime's head. Here no one would see him, and due to his Chakra control, no one would sense him. He activated a jutsu on his eyes that Kyuubi had taught him, and suddenly the world was illuminated by dim lights. His own Chakra was serving as a special version of night vision. It was a nifty trait for someone who keeps night watch.

He would stay like this the entire night, up until just before dawn where he would return to his apartment for a quick shower and disperse his clones. After getting dressed again, Naruto headed to the missions Burro. He knew that he was early for it, but he didn't care. Her merely took a seat on the ground and promptly fell asleep, using the time to nap and recovering his spent chakra from the night.

Some interminably amount of time later; someone was poking and stretching his cheeks as if they were being played with. Groggily he started to wake.

"whaaaaaaaaaaat" he whined, opening one eye to stare into the only eye visible of Hatake Kakashi. He was surprised to note that Kakashi had donned a Jounin uniform, not his usual ANBU uniform.

"Ah! Gomen, Gomen. This old lady needed help crossing the street when-" Same old Kakashi...

"Heh, not a problem." This surprised the Copy-nin, everyone hated his lateness. "How late are you?"

"Oooh? 2 hours."

"Not 3? Wow, that's gotta be some kind of new record." Even Kakashi was amused by the kid who in a few years would be his student.

"Anyways, we have 2 missions, one C rank and one B rank" Kakashi spoke up, offering his hand to Naruto who took it and hoisted himself off the ground. Naruto nodded and popped his back while stretching. Urk.

"What are they?"

"an escorting mission to Suna, ande a rescue mission in Wave."

"Sounds easy, lets go!" and he walked out, letting Kakashi keep up with his swift strides.

"I assume we're just escorting a civilian right? And the kidnapping, we'll be faceing Rogues most likely, correct?" Kakashi nodded.

"Hai."

"Who are we escorting?"

"A young girl"

"Where is she?"

"Waiting outside."

"Cool." They walked outside of the complex to see a somewhat shy and timid young woman with purple hair waiting for them.

"I found my comrade-" this earned him a dirty look from the Blond, as well as an odd feeling of being called a comrade. He wasn't really much of one.

It turned out the girls name was Naomi and the trip to Suna was uneventful, except for that time when a drunk man woke up and thought they were attack him, when it fact they were rolling him to the side of the road and out of harms way.

However, the mission in wave was a bit more exciting. In fact, it was a hell of a lot more exciting. It took Kakashi and Naruto until nearly dusk to find the location of the kidnapped child, but what they never expected was for Cloud to be involved.

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"Aa, Hokage-sama, did you give any missions to Naruto today?" Sakura asked sweetly to the ageing man at the Burro.

"Hai, is there something wrong?"

"Iie, I was just wondering" and with that the girl left.

Ouside Sakura met up with the waiting Sasuke and they walked companionably for a few moments before she spoke up.

"he went without us, again. So, feel like spareing against me instead?" she grinned, Sasuke looked alarmed.

"Only if you don't use that monstrous strength of yours…"

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Naruto's hand darted out and yanked Kakashi back. Nothing happened around them yet he looked deadly serious. Kakashi looked visibly annoyed until Naruto pointed to something on the tree he had been about to land on. There on the tree was an explosive note. Kakashi's visible eye widened. How had he not seen that?

"Normal Bandits wouldn't know how, or take the time to se up a trap. They don't have enough sense for it, this marks someone with a ninja background. Either missing or hired." Naruto told him, barely moving his mouth. Since Kakashi didn't know team 7's unique hand code yet, it was all he could do without giving away their positions with loud noise.

"Don't use fire jutsu, this place is too heavily forested." He added as an afterthought. Kakashi nodded, thinking. Naruto normally would have said more or interrupted needlessly, but instead he waited. Kakashi was the leader of this mission, technically, so Naruto would leave the decisions to him.

"I'll deal with them, you get the captive." Naruto's eyebrow rose at this. Say what? Mentally he sighed; it seemed that Kakashi was still in ANBU mode after all.

"Hai." Naruto moved around the trap and closer to the camp. He waited for Kakashi's signal to infiltrate as he watched the 4 guard ninja's become increasingly aware that something wasn't right. Seconds later Kakashi fired 4 shuriken out of the bushes, 2 were deflected while the other 2 jumped back. From their actions alone, Naruto could tell they were Ninja's. High Chuunin, possibly Jounin level, Kakashi could handle them for awhile, even with his experience, he was outnumbered. So Naruto had to make it quick.

"Suiton, Suishouha." Naruto distinctly heard Kakashi say, as a great vat of water suddenly appeared and slammed into his opponents. Naruto noticed it was takeing them away from the tent so Naruto performed a few seals and became almost entirely invisible. He slipped into the tent unnoticed while Kakashi lured the guards away, but not too far as to arouse suspicion. These Ninja's weren't too smart to not realize Kakashi was a diversion.

Looking around, Naruto calmly took notice of his surroundings. The girl was tied up, on the ground. She looked around 10, possibly 12. Therefore, he deducted that she must have a bloodline or a rich family to warrant attention. Dimly aware of the sounds of fighting behind him, Naruto assessed his opponent. Limiting his chakra to almost non-existent, the Chuunin had yet to even sense him. But the Guard was fully aware that something was going on. Naruto mentally sighed, it would have been better if he had left to help his friends, not stay to guard the girl.

He didn't want to frighten the girl and thus had to make her unconscious. Naruto thought for a moment, before coming up with the perfect way. Forming hand-seals while keeping his chakra low, he managed to pull off a sleep genjutsu. Naruto wasn't disappointed as the girl knocked out in seconds while the Guard let lose a curse and dispelled the genjutsu. However, said guard should have been more careful, for while his hands were occupied with the seal, Naruto's Kunai had left his hand.

By then it was too late, his Kunai was already lodged between the man's head. Naruto didn't want to think about it, he couldn't think about it. Gently unravelling the girls bonds, he hoisted her carefully over his shoulder. Again, forming the necessary seals he used the body-flicker technique to leave the area. Good timing as well, seeing as a millisecond after he left a tree trunk smash the tent to smithereens.

Once he was far enough away, sure she wouldn't wake up, and sure she was safe where she was, Naruto headed back to the scene. He had to aid Kakashi and even the odds a bit more.

When he arrived, he saw that one had already been brought down by Kakashi, looked to have been severed at the waist by a cleverly laid out Raikiri. Naruto continued on and waited for his 'moment to make an entrance.' He saw it when someone fired a fireball at Kakashi. Not hesitating for a moment, Naruto jumped in. his hands became a blur as he called out.

"Doton! Doro Gaeshi!" and slammed his palms onto the ground, causing a wall of earth to rise up as the fireball struck. Kakashi was behind him, looking quite relieved at Naruto's arrival.

"heh, looks like you need a hand. I'd say this turned 'A' rank, what about you?" Naruto Fox like grin spread across his face. "You take the red head; leave the other two to me." Kakashi smiled and nodded. Naruto had _that_ type of charisma.

"Yush! Lets go!" good timing, as the earth wall Naruto was resurrected began to crumble and then fall. Two of Konoha's finest (one from the future) jumped apart to peruse their targets. These were cloud nins, as the Forehead protectors proudly proclaimed, thus they had to be eliminated as a threat.

As Naruto went, he formed several eye-blurring seals before landing in front of his two opponents. However, the moment he landed he sunk into the earth this gave off the illusion that he had placed a genjutsu on the ground and that he was hiding, however, Naruto actually was in the ground, and his opponents didn't know this.

Naruto had a kunai in hand, and was waiting beneath them for one to come within his range, once they did, Naruto's hand materialized out of the earth and struck. His kunai slashed across the women's ankles and cleanly cut through her Achilles tendons, effectively taking her out of the fight, for the moment. However this move sacrificed his position thus when Naruto popped out of his hiding spot, only sharp reflexives kept him from the paralyzing blow to his ribs.

The man aimed to punch him in the head, which Naruto dodged in favour of moving in and elbowing the man's nose. Naruto then back flipped several times to create distance between them. The man charged at him, drawing Shuriken and firing, Naruto dodged those too He foresaw what the man was going for and formed the necessary seals to counter.

"Ninpou, Hari Jizou" he spoke, his blond hair growing at a vast pace to surround his body, becoming a shield of spikes. His opponent was too far into his second attempt at a crippling punch to pull back and he impaled himself on Naruto's hair. Howling in pain the man failed to realize he had given Naruto another opportunity to strike. Aware now, of a building Chakra to his left where the temporarily out of commission women was, Naruto had to think fast.

"Doton! Doryuu Taiga!" he shouted, creating a mudslide. The women's jutsu, whatever she was going to pull, was cut off as her comrade slammed into her. The mudslide took them ever further and into a tree trunk, pinning them. Naruto didn't give them a chance to think.

"Doton! Doryuudan!" A dragon head of mud appeared at his side, and opened his giant mussel, jutting out spikes of mud that the duo frantically tried to dodge but it was futile. Though mud wasn't considered much of a threat, it was with shuriken and Kunai embedded in it. Eventually, they died of blood loss and fatal wounds, hunched over at the base of the tree. Naruto couldn't look. His hands were shaking.

To this day, he could never get used to killing. He despised it, so when Kakashi's Chakra signature appeared on his side with a friendly hand on his shoulder, Naruto was thankful for the gesture, and the excuse not to think about it.

"C'mon, she's this way." They still had a job to complete.

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"When do you think he'll come back?"

"aaahh.. I dunno." They sighed. Without Naruto to pester, and without his cheerful disposition, life was rather dull for the rest of team 7 of the future. Sakura and Sasuke had only been training lightly for the entire day. They had a few cuts and many bruises to sport for it. At least, for them it was light training.

Out of the corner of Sasuke's eye, he spotted a slightly tipsy Jiraiya walking towards the bathhouses. He nudged Sakura.

"Maybe he knows." Her eyes lit up and the both ran towards the Sanin. They had heard from Sandaime that Naruto was staying in the same apartment as the Sanin, frankly, they pitied Naruto for that, while they could hardly stand one, let alone all 3.

"Jiraiya-sama, Jiraiya-sama!" they called out. Unfortunately, asking Jiraiya probably wasn't the best thing in the world, he was after all, a pervert. And when that Sanin saw a young women dressed in red with her... -ahem- appendages 'bouncing' he got a bloody nose.

"Ohohohohoho, seems I'm famous amongst the young! Ohohohohoh" he laughed in a high-pitched voice. He didn't even seem to see Sasuke with her. They stared at him with utter shame and disbelief.

"um…."

"Oh oh oh oh, wanna know a seeeecret." Even Naruto was better than a perverted drunk old man.

"Have you seen Naruto yet?" Sasuke decided to ask, annoyed that his presence was ignored, and even more annoyed at the fact that Jiraiya seemed to be hitting on his team-mate. So he tossed him his most menacing Uchiha glare, which seemed to sober him up nice and good. Hiraiya blinked and pondered, as if trying to pull of that 'wise man' look Sarutobi always managed.

"No, try at our apartment."

"Where is your apartment, Jiraiya-sama" Sakura asked in a fake sweet voice. Jiraiya's other nostril trailed a bit of blood. You'd think by now he would have remembered who she was. But no, he's a baka, through and through.

"B district." He said, with that look that made women ill to see.

"Thanks." Sasuke blurted and grabbed Sakuras arm and ran for it. Jiriaya was just plain creepy. However, to pull a prank on him…

"Oh! And good luck peeping on Tsunade-sama!" Sasuke called out, causing Sakura to snicker evilly at the horrified look on Jiraiya's face followed by the loud shout of…

"JIRIAYA!" _Louder, Tsunade, I don't think people 50 miles away heard you. _Sakura thought.

After calming down from their laughter, they headed towards Naruto's new apartment. After diligently making sure Orochimaru wasn't around, they knocked on Naruto's door. After hearing the muffled 'enter!' they came in, only to stop in their tracks.

There was a sight they thought they would never see again. There was Naruto, in only his boxers, cleaning the dried blood off his weapons. But it wasn't this sight that startled them so much (although Naruto in his boxers WAS rather frightening). No, it was the fact that Naruto was crying.

"Hey."


	8. 08 Break down

**Grace**

Standard Note and Disclaimer still apply :p

Miako – Thanks to you, my new favourite word is now "lecherous" –Cackles!-

Jennjennr – I love Jiraiya too, me and my friend are like obsessed with him. There shall be more fun stuff mixed in with the serious.

As for those who were wondering about Naruto's tears, you are half correct… but I shall reveal more now…. Muahahaha.

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There was a sight they thought they would never see again. There was Naruto, in only his boxers, cleaning the dried blood off his weapons. But it wasn't this sight that startled them so much (although Naruto in his boxers WAS rather frightening). No, it was the fact that Naruto was crying.

"Hey."

"Naruto.." Sakura began, walking swiftly to the couch he was positioned on and taking a seat. Sasuke closed the door behind him and took up space on Naruto's other side. He eyed his friend, who he considered his honorary brother. Despite the rivers of salt water pouring from his eyes, Naruto wore a smile. Even now he tries to pretend everything it okay. He frowned.

"So we went on some missions today. A B-rank one. Me and Kakashi." Naruto claimed brightly, humming softly as he cleaned his weapons. They were already clean. Naruto's obvious fake smile became broader.

"It turned out to be an A-rank because of the cloud ninjas. But Kakashi and I killed 'em good." Too loud and too obviously trying to appear happy. Sakura and Sasuke knew how much Naruto despised killing, how much he wanted to avoid it. Everyone used to see him as a murderer, a monster and Naruto hated that, hated killing because it proved they were right. However, they had never seen him this bad over it. No, there must be something else bothering him.

"There were 5 of them, I killed 3! Heh, Kakashi got the other two." These words brought Sasuke out of his glum thoughts to study Naruto's face again. His frown deepened. Naruto was oblivious to the crease of concern in his friends' eyes.

"It was so weird too, I mean we just clicked..." at this point Naruto stopped cleaning his already clean weapons and slumped into himself, drawing in and not showing his face.

"Naruto?" Sakura said softly, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. Naruto didn't shrug it off like he usually would.

"for a moment I totally forgot he didn't know who I was. Iruka doesn't either, I visited him you know. He didn't know anything. Heh, even the Ero-senin doen't recall a thing." Sasuke would later reflect that his next words to Naruto probably weren't a very smart thing to say for the moment. But Sasuke wasn't know for his tact with emotional problems.

"That's because they don't know you yet, Naruto."

"I never thought I'd have to see those eyes again."

Eyes? What eyes? Sakura looked confusedly at Sasuke, who answered her questioning gaze with his own. Who's eyes? Naruto sniffed, whipping his tears away only to have new ones replace them.

"I miss everyone." He admitted. "I miss the Ero-senin, I miss Kakashi, I miss Iruka.. I miss our friends. When we made the decision to leave, I never allowed myself to think about it, because it was too painful." He paused for a moment.

"Most of all, I miss baa-chan." He spoke. "True, she doesn't know me yet, but I never thought I'd have to see those eyes from her again. Those dead cold eyes." Here Naruto shivered. His brother and sister now understood. Naruto was homesick, homesick for the people who loved him.

"I miss when she would grab onto me with tears in her eyes after hearing our mission was an S-rank one, and that we nearly died. I miss arguing with her, I miss her hugs." Naruto wrapped his arms around his legs and curled up in the middle of the couch.

"She's the closest person to a mom I have." Sasuke put his hand on Naruto's head as Sakura embraced him. Normally Sakura wouldn't consider hugging a boy in his boxers only. But Naruto was the exception, always the Exception. In Hindsight, she was glad. Naruto's skin was hot and clammy, unusually so.

"I didn't know that out of everyone, Tsunade meant the most…." Sasuke said, noticing finally that Naruto's head was a bit hot, frowning he watched as Sakura put her hand on his forehead and a hand on her own. Her eyes widened. Naruto's eyes were closed and he seemed relaxed in his curled up position.

"Naruto, you have a fever." She stated looking at him worriedly. Naruto rarely if ever got sick. Sasuke then noticed a slight discoloration on Naruto's skin and pointed it out to Sakura. She frowned when looking at it and asked Sasuke to get some tissue paper. When he returned she took a gentle swipe on the discolored spot and smelt it. After a moment she paled.

"Poison."

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Young girls, young girls, young girls!

"Ohohohohohohoh" Jiraiya chuckled and laughed as he skipped towards his apartment. He tripped several times on his way up the stairs but that didn't dampen his mood. Konoha had such lovely young girls!

He walked down the corridor or rather, swaggered down the corridor and giggled lecherously. He stopped at his door and was about to open it when he heard voices. What a great opportunity to eavesdrop!

"_I never thought I'd have to see those eyes again."_ Ooohhh? That sounded like his roommates voice. Jiraiya frowned.

"_I miss everyone. I miss the Ero-senin, I miss Kakashi, I miss Iruka.. I miss our friends. When we made the decision to leave, I never allowed myself to think about it, because it was too painful."_

Eh! Ero-enin! He was NOT an… wait. Okay, so maybe he was. That by no means gave the snotty kid the right shout it out to the whole world. Okay so maybe he wasn't shouting either. Jiraiya gave an indignant snort.

"_Most of all, I miss baa-chan. True, she doesn't know me yet, but I never thought I'd have to see those eyes from her again. Those dead cold eyes."_ Jiraiya blinked and thought for a moment. Who was this granny Naruto was speaking of? Jiraiya narrowed his eyes as he stood in the doorway. He was aware that Tsunade had come up behind him and was aiming a punch.

He held his hand up, gesturing to the door, his face serious looking despite the pinkish hue caused from way too much Sake. Now Tsunade was listening in.

"_I miss when she would grab onto me with tears in her eyes after hearing our mission was an S-rank one, and that we nearly died. I miss arguing with her, I miss her hugs."_

Tsunade mouthed to Jiraiya. 'Who?' she asked. He shook his head and shrugged.

'Dunno.'

"_She's the closest person to a mom I have."_ Jiraiya was getting frustrated. C'mon! on with the secret telling already!

"_I didn't know that out of everyone, Tsunade meant the most…." _That… sounded like the Uchiha. It was only Jiraiya's quick thinking to put his hand over Tsunade's mouth that kept her from revealing their position. Tsunade: Caring? Compassionate? Mom-like? It was purely unfathomable! However, Jiraiya thought back to the time when Nawaki had been alive, Tsunade had been caring and loving back then…

With his thoughts, he missed Sakura telling Naruto he had a fever, however he did catch the last word she said before Tsunade barged in the room.

"_Poison."_

Tsunade with her usual cold glare quickly assessed Naruto who was looking at her rather startled. Sakura sighed and wordlessly passed the tissue swab to her in which Tsunade sniffed and turned around and walked away. All this time, Jiraiya was in the doorway nursing a large goose bump on his head. Tsunade could be so mean sometimes…

He didn't have time to recuperate as she came barging back into the room with her medicine kit. She was rummaging around it before stopping and staring at Naruto in shock, her hand gripping her necklace. There, around Naruto's neck, was a necklace completely identical to hers. There was simply no way it could be faked, she knew it.

"I guess you were telling the truth-" she said calmly, her nervous fingers betraying what she actually felt upon seeing a second of Shodai's one of a kind necklace. She got over it quickly and administered an antidote to the poison.

"It seems as though the poison was designed to seep in through the skin." Naruto frowned, feeling very sleepy all of a sudden.

"I do recall he wore gloves." He mused out loud, now sitting cross legged in his boxers. Jiraiya had finally recovered and was staring avidly at Naruto before a small trickle of blood came out his nose.

"YOU!" everyone stared at him as he pointed to Naruto as if seeing him for the first time.

"You're sexy."

SMACK

And that's the story of how Jiraiya's head ended up in the wall.

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Naruto was asleep on the couch with a blanket covering him. Jiraiya was nursing his wounds, while Sasuke was dropping to sleep on the plush chair and Tsunade and Sakura were in the kitchen talking.

"So… you're my apprentice then." Sakura nodded at Tsunade.

"Hai." Tsunade frowned.

"Do you know how he got my necklace then?" Here Sakura smiled.

"Shizune-chan told me. You made a bet with him shortly after meeting him. You bet he couldn't learn Rasengan in a week. You bet on the necklace. Naruto trained so hard for that one week, he apparently didn't even sleep according to Jiraiya-sama." Tsunade twitched at the formal title the girl gave the pervert.

"You were attacked, Jiraiya and Shizune and Naruto came to help you. The one week was up anyways. Jiraiya was only at 30 of his power, so he took on the leader while the Minion fought off Shizune. Shizune was defeated and Naruto was up." Sakura chuckled. "Naruto back then was a Baka. He couldn't fight properly and had too much Stamina with too much Chakra. You were apparently brought down by your fears. You were about to be killed when Naruto took the blow. He caught the persons hand and used Rasengan on him, nearly killing his opponent.

"But. But his opponent was a medical Ninja that managed to create a Chakra scalpel and literally cut the muscles in Naruto's chest, preventing him from breathing. I heard from Shizune that you thought he was dead and yet refused to stop healing him. Apparently he grabbed the necklace and told you he won the bet before falling asleep.

You put the necklace on him I think, and then nearly died defending him from the one who Jiraiya-sama was fighting." Again that twitch at the formal ending given to the pervert.

"Then you kicked butt." Sakura finished, chuckling. Shizune had loved to tell that story. Tsunade had said nothing as she explained, and instead tried to picture the event in her head. She found herself trembling ever so slightly, it was a good story.

"Sou ka.." she muttered looking out of the room towards the living room and specifically, to the couch where a crown of yellow hair could be seen.

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"Do you accept our offer?" asked a dismembered voice from the deepest part of the shadows.

"Hai." Answered a different voice, silky and husky like.

There came laughter from all around before a whispering could be heard.

"Konoha will fall."

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Hahahaha.. my head hurts. Since last chapter was really long, this one is slightly short. ;; sorry sorry.

Also, I'm nearly done formulating the first chapter of another fan-fiction. It's going to be called Skeleton… unless I change it. So keep a look out ;; R R as always! Thank you for reading!


	9. 09 Wednesday

**Grace**

Standard Note and Disclaimers still apply.

Mrs. Nozomu Sohma – hahah, thanks. You never know –wink- especially with what goes on in my head.

Jennjennr – right now, it's 50/50 whether or not anyone will find out who it is. –evilgrin-

Miako – my other favourite word is "Man-slave." Hahah going up to people and saying "will you be my man-slave" was really fun to pass the time.

Thank you everyone else for reviewing! There shall be shameless advertisement at the bottom of the chapter…

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▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬TimeSkip▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Monday came and went, Tuesday came and went… and on Wednesday morning everyone who was in the yellow group was waiting.

"Jeez, was taking him so long?" 'Him' was actually Naruto, who was hiding in the trees watching them. Tsunade was looking ready to start killing. Naruto chuckled. Since last Friday, Jiraiya and Tsunade had hung out with him a bit. But he felt like they felt they were obligated too, not because they wanted too.

Naruto decided to test out his students again. Slowly he lifted his hands to his chest and started forming seals: Tiger, Boar, Dog.

"Hyuuton, Haryuu Muuko." He said in a normal voice. From the mountain, a large dragon/tiger ice _thing_ sprung into existence and attacked. Naruto made sure to put a lot of chakra into it for a reason. He watched their reactions.

"Katon, Goukakyuu no jutsu!" Itachi called. His dragon-tiger was unaffected by the heat of the flames, this was why he put so much Chakra in it, to make it resistant to fire.

"Doton! Yomi Numa." This was Jiraiya's attack. It too was nullified. His underworld swamp froze over once it touched his dragon-tiger, and only added to the training area.

Orochimaru and Sandaime tried to slow it down as the dragon-tiger or ice made it's way to them. Sandaime used wood shuriken to distract while Orochimaru tried to use an earth wall to defend. Useless. The ice-dragon-tiger plowed through it like it was nothing. Tsunade was next, she ran up and punched his jutsu. Rather a unique approach.

He may have fortified it with extra chakra, but there was just no way it could have stood up to Tsunade's strength. Naruto watched his technique get demolished by Tsunade, who now had a touch of frostbite on her hands. There was one person who hadn't attacked, and on further inspection, Naruto realized a tad too late that Kakashi was a bunshin.

"Yo." Naruto nearly had a heart attack and nearly lost his footing on his snow covered tree. He sent a glare at Kakashi, who was hanging upside down on a tree branch just above him.

"Don't DO that!" he whispered to him. Come to think of it, Kakashi was acting as strange as Jiraiya and Tsunade were. Perhaps another person who felt obligated to hang out with him? Naruto's thoughts circled around in his head and he nearly missed Kakashi's question.

"… we doing?"

"Huh? Oh….. dunno yet. I have an idea…" Naruto's feral grin was back. He started to chuckle in the way Jiraiya would when he spotted a bath full of naked women. Naruto had a very funny idea. Kakashi was immediately on alert now when Naruto started laughing.

"YOSH!" Naruto jumped down from his tree and into the clearing, faceing his 'class'

"hehehehe, now, um, you all have to put these on." Naruto told them, holding up 6 blindfolds.

"and have an all out taijutsu battle.. against me." Jiraiya was the one who voiced complaint at this.

"But you won't be blindfolded!" he cried out, acting like the baby he sometimes was. Kakashi had come out of hiding as well and was eyeing Naruto like he was crazy.

"Hehehe, okay. To make it fair I'll wear a blindfold as well, and I'll also wear bells. This is like the survival test only blindfolded." He tossed the blindfolds to them each and put his hands on his hips.

"Only, it doesn't matter if you work in teams or not. Because this is simply for fun. Also, it IS a straight out taijutsu battle, which means no genjutsu and no ninjutsu. However, that doesn't mean if I won't know if you're cheating." Naruto waited until they started putting on their blindfolds before putting on his own.

"When I say go, we can start." Naruto explained, starting to get used to his lack of eyes. After a few moments of standing there, Naruto smiled.

"GO!" honing in to the sound of his voice, Itachi made a step forward. Naruto waited a few more seconds before jumping into the air, and landing gracefully on a tree. His bells didn't ring, and he made no sound.

"You're a bunch of slow pokes, you know that?" now Naruto's voice came from the left, not in front of them. Heads swiveled towards him. Actually, the only one Naruto thought that would give him troubles was Sandaime. He didn't think that Kakashi, Itachi and the Sanin would be efficient in this exercise. He was right. Sandaime's chakra signature started to approach him at a high speed. He only had enough time to dodge.

Sandaime continued his attack, his body flowing at odd angles, kicking and punching at odd angles as well. As blindfolded as they were, Sandaime and Naruto had training in this area. Naruto swung over a branch only to meet a face full of Sarutobi's foot. Sliding backwards under the branch he came up on the other side and swiped Sandaime across to get his feet from under him.

Sandaime flipped backwards on the same branch they were both on and by sticking his hands onto the branch again, Naruto once again meet a face full of Sarutobi's feet. The counter attack caught him by surprise and Naruto fell backwards, loosing the grip with his feet and falling to the forest floor. Sandaime used his momentum to carry him forward and jumped to another branch and paused. Listening. Waiting. As Naruto fell through the air, he thought about Sarutobi's attacks and grimaced. In this field, Sarutobi ruled.

"Eh, lets give the others a chance now Hokage-sama."

"Hai." The old man chuckled and for a moment, stood there in his tree with his head cocked to one side as if listening to something else. After a moment he headed to the right and back into the clearing. After awhile Naruto followed suit.

"Alright, you had your fun now put your blindfolds back on please." He could feel the shock that they emitted. Secretly Naruto grinned, they had taken off their blindfolds and watched him and Hokage fight. After all, he did say they didn't have to keep them on when not fighting him.

"How did you do that?" Naruto's head twisted to Itachi's direction and he grinned, revealing his fangs. They were caught back by this.

"Ah, Sarutobi-sama and I have an advantage. Me because of my heightened senses, and Sarutobi-sama because he's had previous training in this area before. The trick… well… I shouldn't exactly tell you. You are all able to feel Chakra right? Well the trick is to feel the Chakra that you opponent emits."

"WE know this." Orochimaru stated, he didn't sound too impressed.

"If you know this, why didn't you apply it to attack me then?" Naruto shot back, and the snack man didn't answer.

"The trick is the fact that all living organisms emit Chakra. Did you know that bats are blind, and use sound to see? Objects reflect sound and thus create a black and white image almost to the Bat. By applying this simple principal to humans, as well as the ability to sense even the smallest amount of Chakra, we can create a similar image by the vibrations caused by the Chakra signatures that each person has.

"Hokage-sama, I'm going to flare my chakra, I want you to explain to them what their supposed to see with their blindfolds on."

"Hai." Sandaime answered before there was a sudden surge of Chakra coming from the boy.

"Its like a sun emitting light almost. Except the rays of light come in pulses."

"Good, now im going to change my Chakra, I want you do explain what you see." Naruto changed his Chakra and started to channel a relatively small amount of Kyuubi's chakra. Sandaime drew in a hissing breath and backed away.

"I..its not a pulse exactly. Still like the sun only it comes out like tendrils…" Naruto hummed in agreement before returning to his original Chakra and its output.

"Normally chakra comes out of the body in relatively small dosages. Tsunade-baa-chan would know this because she is a medical ninjas."

"That's right, if a ninja is severely low on Chakra they will die if not treated because of the constant outpour of chakra the body creates."

"Correct, Chakra can actually be harmful to its generator if it's bunched up together for too long. Hokage-sama, try and sense me now." Naruto dimmed his chakra to nearly non-existent causing Tsunade to gasp along side of Sarutobi.

"…. You.. it…"

"Hehe, someone with incredible chakra control can make themselves 'appear to be dead' to someone. Due to Kyuubi's healing and the fact that my body has had time to adapt to condensed chakra and little chakra output, I can go for a relatively very long time prohibiting the natural chakra output.

"Therefore, by honing into the chakra output the body does, you can create an image of that person in your mind, much in the way a bat does."

"How can you navigate then?" Kakashi voiced.

"Simple, the trees emit chakra as well. Though.. I guess you'd call it the frequency of the chakra is significantly lower, you can actually divide how you sense individual things."

"It's also easier to move once you've gotten the hang of it. I didn't teach this to you because at the time you weren't ready to know it. Cloud is known for their chakra control, thus it'll be harder to sense them."

"Ah, not only that but it'll be dark out. We'll be at a disadvantage because of the weather. Hence, why I'm working on your senses today. Since Hokage-sama knows it already, he's going to help. We're actually going to function something like a collective and help each other.

I'll take Kakashi, Jiraiya and Tsunade-baa-chan and Sandaime will you take Itachi and Orochimaru?"

"Sure."

"Alright, I expect you all too at least get a good grip of this by the end of the lesson, I'm not spending more than two days teaching you it. Got it? We'll head over to the ice mountain, Hokage-sama you work in the forest."

Naruto abruptly walked to his small mountain with a smile on his face. They had been staring at him all throughout his lecture as if he had sported a purple nose. It was amusing to see them showed up by someone younger than them. After a few seconds his students followed him and Naruto stopped at the base of his mountain.

"Alright, I expect you to be able to get this fairly easy after explaining the trick. So now we'll do this one at a time. Tsunade will be going first with the blindfold. What I want you to do is find us. Kakashi, Jiraiya and I will be placed around the base of the mountain, but we won't be on the mountain. You have to feel us out. Jiraiya will stay at his normal chakra output, while Kakashi will be flaring his chakra, and I will be nearly non-existent. You have only an hour to find us."

Tsunade nodded and pout the blindfold on without complaint. Signaling to Jiraiya he motioned the Sanin to move to the left, and for Kakashi to move to the right while Naruto stayed where he was (in front of Tsunade). He nodded his head and Kakashi flared his chakra while Naruto lowered his. The exercise had begun.

It took Tsunade 45 minutes to find both Kakashi and Jiraiya. She was having difficulty however, with Naruto. The chakra embedded within the ice mountain was throwing her off more than she thought.

"This is why you must divide what you're sensing." Came a voice to her left. Tsunade sighed and took her blindfold off.

"How am I supposed to do that then?" She asked, frustrated by the boys knowing smirk.

"Easy, locate and understand what you can sense without trying. Then block that out, and see what's left. Whoever said anything about continuously sensing them? Jiraiya, your turn. Tsunade, flare your chakra this time, Kakashi normal output." And the exercise began again. It took Jiraiya the same amount of time to accomplish the task, only with the second explanation he managed to locate the general area Naruto was in.

Jiraiya was told to flare his chakra when it was Kakashi's turn. When Kakashi did it, though it took him longer, he managed to pinpoint Naruto.

"Alright, that's enough for today. Practice it, more practice for tomorrow as well. I want you to master it." They stared at him as if he was crazy. Master it in two days!

"I had to master it in the battle field when my eye sight was momentarily taken from me. Therefore, you can do it in two days." Naruto said simply. He Shrugged and popped out of existence.

Personally, Naruto thought it he was an okay teacher, stricter than he thought but… he promised himself he would lighten up later. After all, it was his first time teaching. Tomorrow, he would play with them more.

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I'm going to do a few time skips though out the months simply because I can't force myself to do everyday… it just wouldn't work….. hehehe…Also, the theories in this chapter were a combination of things i already knew, common sense and my own wacky imagination, i hope it makes some sense.

Oh yeah! Shamless advertisement!

Skeleton, I put the first chapter up.

(edit: if you can't see the chapter, i'm sorry. i updated it sunday at noon, and it still hasn't shown up. So the update was sooner than you all thought)


	10. 10 Elegance

**Grace**

Standard Disclaimers and note still apply.

Flaming Beauty – hahaha… what plot? I literally make it up as I go along. Aye, I didn't want to go for pairings because if I did, there would be a whole group of disappointed people… so I try and keep it pairing…less for this story. Though my other one will have some pairings in it. (I think)

And to everyone else, thank you very much for reviewing! Your reviews make me happy inside…

**Warning:** mentions of rape are in this chapter, as well as some scenes pertaining to it. Italicized text under the 'dream-sequence' section contains this content. Reader discretion is advised.

If you don't wish to read the scene, then don't, and please scroll past it if you feel you aren't able to read it. Thank you.

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October 9th. 11:00pm. Nearly 5 weeks since initial arrival.

╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤**Dream-Sequence╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤**

"_Tell me where she is, little boy, and then I won't have to hurt you…" came a sickenly sweet voice in his left ear. He tried pulled away only to find he couldn't, there were seals all over his body preventing him from moving even the slightest inch. _

"_Get away from me you filthy bitch." He spat at her, watching as rage contorted his captor's face. He shivered, knowing he was going to regreth is words._

"_So be it." The leer in that voice was worse than Orochimaru's. Hands. Hands touching his chest. When had his shirt even come off! _No, no, No, NO!_ He thought desperately. Panic started to settle in and his memory started to blur. The feelings remained however. There came a chuckle in his ear as a scream ripped from his throat. _

_It didn't hurt physically. No, it was the mental pain, the anguish he would feel. No genjutsu could synthesis the effects like the real thing. _

"**_Gaki, wake up."_ **_A deep rumbling voice told him._

╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤**End-Dream-Sequence** ╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤

Naruto sat bold upright in his bed, panting for air. The sheets stuck to his body as sweat dribbled between his shoulder blades. Even upon wakening he was panicking. He started to struggle with his sheets, trying to tear them off his body only to have them further entangled. He started to hyperventilate as he struggled even further, his mind blank and focused only on one thing. Getting away.

He didn't care about the racket he was causing, especially when he fell off the bed with a hard thump on the floor, instead he only concerned himself with getting the sheets off of him. Once he managed that he grabbed the closest article of clothing he had and fled through his window, almost not caring to open it.

Naruto didn't notice the figure at the doorway on his way out, completely rooted on the stop and hidden in shadows.

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Jiraiya usually was a heavy sleeper. But tonight he woke up to the sound of a muffled scream across from his room. They were followed by pleas for someone to stop doing something, though he couldn't understand the words themselves, the messaged was clear. Jiraiya wasn't a Sanin for nothing. He grabbed his robe, a scroll and a kunai and dodged out of his room, almost forgetting to open the door. For him, his roommate was in danger.

He warily crept to Naruto's bedroom and pried open the door slowly. He stood frozen on the spot as he stared into the room. Naruto was thrashing in his bed as if he was in some severe amount of pain. He watched as red chakra spiked visibly off his body and the kid woke up, sitting up straight faster than Jiraiya's eyes could trace.

He really should have gone to see if Naruto was alright, but he couldn't bring himself to move. Instead he watched. He watched as Naruto started to hyperventilate, he watched as he fell off the bed in full blown panic. He watched as Naruto fled through his window in a mad frenzy to escape the room he was in.

For a long time Jiraiya just stood there. He didn't understand why he was so shocked by seeing Naruto like that. Was it because during the short time he's gotten to know him, that Jiraiya liked the kid? And thus seeing him so… so… so _helpless_ shocked him? It was heart wrenching.

╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤PerspectiveSwitch╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤

He ran. It felt as though all his ninja skills left him so all he could do was run, not jump from rooftop to rooftop, just run. So he did, he ran through the dark empty streets stumbling and blind to his surroundings.

After awhile he slowed to a walk and his panting turned to steady breathing. He was only in his boxers and navy jacket. And it was _cold_. Very, very cold. He wrapped his jacked tightly around him and watched his breath ghost away from him.

A few moments later he took in his surroundings. He was near the Uchiha compound, so he wasn't that surprised to bump into one. But the ground sure as hell was surprised to meet his behind.

Those eyes seared into him, they seemed lost and cold, kind of like his entire situation. It took several long seconds for both pairs of eyes to realize who they were seeing before it clicked.

"Naruto-sensei?"

"Itachi-san?" they both asked at the same time, staring at each other in shock. Itachi held out his hand which Naruto took, and Naruto was once again back on his feet.

"What are you doing here, Naruto-sensei?" Naruto's eye twitched at being called sensei. Itachi however looked his 'teacher' over. Puffy eyes, pale skin, pajamas. Naruto's next words confirmed his suspicions.

"Um… a.. nightmare." He explained. Shivering slightly and warming his arms with his hands. Naruto found it difficult to accept this kinder, caring version of Itachi.

"Come on, my house isn't far from here, you'll catch a cold staying outside." Since there was nothing better to do, Naruto followed him, though a bit warily for his own mind. Meeting strangers in dark alley ways the blond haired bimbo is always the first to die.

Soon enough Naruto found himself being guided inside the Uchiha main house and into a kitchen. Itachi told him to have a seat while he fixed some tea. That's just what Naruto did, relishing in the warmth the house brought to his numb limps. He let his thoughts wonder before waking up to the steam of tea wafting into his nostrils.

Itachi sat facing him, sipping his own tea. Naruto determined that the tea wasn't poisoned (force of habit, honest) and took tiny sips, his numb fingers defrosting on the edges of the clay cup. They both sat like that for some minutes. The silence wasn't comfortable, but it wasn't unfriendly… just awkward.

"Gomen nasi, I'm not much company" Naruto spoke, sipping his wonderfully warm tea.

"That's okay; I'm not much of a talker." Itachi replied, both of them smiled softly. But in the moonlight it was hard to see.

"Do you want to talk about it sensei?" Naruto twitched at the title again. There was no way he would get used to it.

"About what?" feigning innocents. Itachi's eyes narrowed as Naruto refused to meet his face.

"Your nightmare. The one that must have scared you so bad you took as stroll outside in only boxers and a jacket in the middle of October, which, might I remind you, is almost below freezing." Itachi specified. Each word made Naruto wince and pale to the point where in the moonlight streaming in from the window, he look translucent. Naruto struggled to form an answer but was saved by a voice in the shadows.

"Takako, again?" Sasuke appeared, causing both present occupants of the room to jump; Naruto because he wasn't paying attention, and Itachi because he hadn't mastered the finer points of sensing.

"Hai." The blond nodded stiffly to his friend and brother, where Sasuke just stared at him before refilling Naruto's empty tea and taking a seat in-between the two, at the head of the table.

"You never did tell-"

"And I never plan to!" Naruto managed to yell at them with a whisper instead of an actual yell. But it came out sounding more like a vicious hiss. Itachi and Sasuke flinched at Naruto. They fixed him simultaneously with the Uchiha scrutiny, making Naruto fidget uncomfortably. Wasn't Sasuke supposed to hate Itachi, not have him gang up on him?

"She touched you, didn't she." It wasn't a question. Naruto trembled and refused to look into Sasuke's eyes. Of all the times to have the nightmare, of all the people to run into, of all the times to break down _again_ it had to be tonight.

Itachi's eyes widened as the implications of what Sasuke had said finally hit him. Strangely, he felt sympathy for the Kyuubi container, not satisfaction that someone put him in his place, in fact he felt sick that someone had done that.

Naruto wondered why they were just starting to have this conversation now; it was a year and a half ago for him! Back when they first met Takako. Naruto supposed that just because they didn't ask then, didn't mean they were still curious as to what happened to their little brother. Sasuke just was the first one to ask rather than Sakura.

"I didn't say anything before because I wasn't exactly sure…" normally Itachi would mind being ignored, but this time he opted to settle as an observer and watch his brother and his team-mate talk. Sasuke seemed to be good at reading people's minds and Naruto deflated before him.

"She wanted to know where Sakura-chan was, and I didn't tell her, no matter what she threw at me. I actually don't remember all of it; I think I blacked out at one point. Though I remember coming too and seeing a crater around me…" Naruto did distinctly remember that. And he supposed it was due to Kyuubi being one pissed off demon lord. A new silence fell between them for awhile before Itachi spoke up finally.

"Have you told Sakura-san?"

Naruto shook his head as a negative answer. And once more there was silence, penetrated only by Sasuke going to the window and opening it. Naruto raised an eyebrow and Sasuke smirked at them.

"You can come in now Jiraiya." Naruto and Itachi jumped, yet again; Naruto because he wasn't paying attention, and Itachi because he hadn't learned the finer points of chakra sensing.

A familiar white head of hair peeked through and smiled (though, since he was upside down, it looked like a frown).

"Oooooh? Looks like I was spotted." He said in a slightly sulky voice. Jiraiya chuckled, trying to lighten the gloomy atmosphere.

"Anyways, I dropped by to see if Naruto wanted to hit the baths with me." Naruto, who was tired of the Uchiha's ganging up on him for information, readily jumped up and agreed. On his way to the window (did he ever use a door anymore?) He was stopped by Sasuke.

"Dobe."

"Hrm?" Naruto turned around in time to catch a small flying object with sharp corners on his nose. He hissed and rubbed his poor abused nose and caught the object on his way down. It was a small heavy box wrapped in sparkly paper.

"Happy Birthday." Sasuke actually pointed to a clock on the wall that read 12:01. Naruto chuckled.

"Arigato." And out he went, leaving a smirking Sasuke and a slightly bewildered Itachi behind.

On their way to the baths, Jiraiya had selflessly given Naruto his outer robe to wear over his thin jacket and boxers. Naruto walked in relative silence, not responding outside of a few words to Jiraiya's pointless questions. Such as 'what are we learning tomorrow.' In which Naruto would answer 'dunno, we'll see.' And Jiraiya would get annoyed and be silent for a few minutes.

"We're here." Naruto looked up and realized that yes; they were at an open bath house. Yawning they made their way inside (Jiraiya's treat, since Naruto had not money on him) and stripped into another set of robes and into the hot bath itself.

Naruto sunk down into the hot liquid with a pleasant sigh. They were, for the moment, the only ones there this late at night, thus had the bath entirely to themselves. Silence with Jiraiya was comfortable, and neither of them was in a rush to break it. After awhile though, Jiraiya asked him a very unusual question.

"Hey, did you hear about the optometrist that fell into a pile of broken glass?" Naruto opened his eyes and looked over to Jiraiya who was sipping some Sake.

"No, what happened? Was he okay?" Naruto sounded genuinely worried. Why was Jiraiya asking this?

"Dunno, but apparently he made a spectacle out of it."

It took Naruto a few moments to get it before growling and splashing Jiraiya. Naruto however couldn't contain his laughter though, it was pretty funny, for a bad pun.

╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤EndOfChapter╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤

HA! 3 chapters in 3 days! Beat that Sisco and Ebert!. I dunno, in my opinion, this is simply a filler chapter, and was rather pointless… o.O oh well! Originally itachi wasn't supposed to be in this one... but… my mind rebelled against me, really. Honest.

(**edit(07/03/06):** ah, I need to apologize, due to the fact that I have a strong tendency to forget words and letters (making sentences seemed cropped and without flavor) as well as the fact that I type fast, there were a lot of errors in this chapter that my program didn't catch, so um.. I'm sorry.)


	11. 11 Trip to Stone pt I

**Grace**

Standard Disclaimers and Note still apply.

Mrs. Nozomu Sohma + miako – I went back and looked over it to catch the mistakes, as well as fix a few awkward sentences, I hope ch. 10 is better now.

Jennjennr – No, your not channelling Jiraiya :p and I don't think I intend to reveal who that man/women really is until at least the very end….

Flaming Beauty – really? I thought it was only 6 days rather than 14… I actually ran out of inspiration for the next few filler chapters…. Hence the wait, and why this one happens to be a bigger time skip.

To everyone else that reviewed, thank you so very much! And you all get lollipops. Since I seemed to have an abundance of them for an unknown reason…

Warning: there shall be singing…. snickers

**÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷**StoryGoesHere**÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷**

December 15th, just over 14 weeks since initial arrival.

Sakura sighed, rubbing her temples tiredly as people hounded her with angry questions. Why had training stopped just the week before? Why were no preparations being made for the attack in 9 days? To top it off, Sandaime wasn't saying a bloody thing, Naruto and Anko were trying to beat each others heads in and Sasuke looked to be sleeping.

True, they had gained a lot of respect, and her mother and father warmed significantly up to Naruto, as well as the Uchiha clan. And it was true they furthered the general knowledge of how to fight in a blizzard, but right now Sakura wanted to throw it all down the drain and kill someone.

A vein appeared on her large forehead and it started to grow. These Jounins didn't seem to sense the danger like Sasuke and Naruto. However, both were having a secret bet of who she'd hit first and thus did not bother to stop her.

The vein grew bigger. And bigger… and Bigger…

"URIAAAAA!" Someone, Ebisu it looked like, went through 4 walls before his momentum stopped. There were veins growing in Sakura's knuckles as everyone became silenced by the display. She put her hands on her hips and smirked evilly at those in the room. Of the people they were training, only half were at the meeting.

"Well, since your all willing to give me some room to explain…." Sakura glared coldly at them.

"Quite simply put, we lied. Do you have a problem with that?" she sneered. Who would have thought their parents would be so... immature? She scowled.

"And to make matters better, it was only a white lie. To tell the truth, there will be an attack, but it starts today." She was met with spit and smelly breath as several people yelled obnoxiously at her. The urge to kill someone grew even greater.

"URIAAAA!" Gai joined Ebisu 2 and a half rooms away. Again, Sakura smirked evilly at them.

"Pay attention, will ya? Who ever said that in war there is only straight out battles? For Christ sakes! There will be various patrols sent by cloud to infiltrate Konohagakure and THAT is what the attack consist off…." Sakura grumbled under her breath about various ways to torture those with only half a brain.

It seemed the only people in the room that were well composed were team 7, the Hokage, Orochimaru, Kakashi and the Elder Shikamaru. Sakura could understand who the Hokage, Kakashi and Shikamaru knew, but Orochimaru was a mystery.

"Then why did you lie to us?" Hiashi of the Hyuuga clan asked.

"To motivate you." Came a drowsy reply from Sakura's left. So.. Sasuke decided to join the party. She shot him a dirty look which he ignored in favour of watching Anko try and beat Naruto is an arm wrestle, in fact… several people were watching them. Sakura sighed.

"There will be something like 15 patrols for the next 2 weeks. It's up to Hokage-sama what should be done. I won't lie to you, expect open battle Janurary, about.. oh.. 18 days from now." Sakura spoke, a few people nodded distract while watching Anko struggle with Naruto (Naruto didn't even look to be trying)

Sakura grew another vein in her forehead, with her hands on her hips she was menacing, and if the nurses caring for the poor battered heads of Gai and Ebisu were any clue, everyone knew what Sakura's posture could entail.

"Naaruuutooooo………." Came a low threatening growl from the pink haired Kunoichi. Said person twitched and ended his battle with Anko by pinning her arm in a second. Naruto turned his body to face his comrade.

"Yes, oh vibrant sweet loving, caring beautiful goddess?" Naruto's eye twitched as Sakura grew another vein. Several people covered their mouths to smother their snickers. Those 3 were always some sort or form of amusement for everyone else.

"I'd start running if I were you…" Sasuke smirked. Bad move on his part.

"Saaassuuukeee……" Sakura said in the same tone of voice, Sasuke immediately bolted followed shortly behind, Naruto too fled the scene. Sakura counted to 10, and then ran after them. The gathered jounin and family members were all chuckling.

"Kakashi, Tsume, I have a mission for you…"

**÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷**TimeSkip** ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷**

"Ow... OW! Okay, okay I surrender, ow... OW I said I surrend-"

"Not good enough! How dare you make bets behind my back... NARUTO!" said blond haired shinobi was currently tied upside down in rope, hanging from a tree. Sasuke was beside him, looking equally worse for wear as both had suffered at the wrath that their friend brought upon them.

"But... but... Sakura-chaaaan. It was harmless... we swear!"

"Naaruuutooooo.." her fist came up.

"I had nothing to do with it…" Sasuke muttered, however that was not a smart thing to say as he went rocking from Sakura's fist. His head hit the tree trunk and winced.

"did you know that after 12 hours of hanging upside down your blood would have pooled into your head and exploded?" Sakura lectured them sweetly. Sasuke and Naruto paled considerably. They had already been up here for 20 minutes and Sakura didn't seem to want to let them down.

"I think I'll leave you here to _hang._" Their eyes widened.

"S.. Sakura!" Sasuke called out.

"Don't you dare! This is so totally _not_ funny!" Naruto started to frantically try and free himself.

"Think we should interfere..?" Inuzuka Tsume, mother of Inuzuka Kiba asked, looking over at her white haired partner. Kakashi was visibly trying not to laugh.

"Aa…" he snickered and the two of them jumped out of the trees and stopped in front of the trio. Sakura turned around and looked at them confusedly.

"Yes?" Tsume shifted as Kakashi couldn't contain his giggles.

"We want to you for a mission." Tsume told them. This perked their interest.

"What kind?" Sauske asked, still swinging too and fro on his tree branch.

"S-rank." Now even Naruto was paying attention. The tree of them frowned.

"Why do you need us?" Sakura asked, Eyeing the Inuzuka and Hatake individually, making her own assessment. They shifted.

"Well… it's an infiltration mission to stone…" Kakashi began only to be cut off by a loud yell from a certain ecstatic blond who had managed to free himself from his bonds. Only to be kicked into the tree again.

"So, who we spying on?" Sasuke asked, as Naruto helped him down, of course this earned the blond a glare from the Uchiha.

"Tsuchikage. And if they are planning to attack…"

"We're to either a) assassinate him, or b) cripple them somehow?" Sasuke asked. Inuzuka Tsume was surprised on how quickly these kids caught on when very little had been said about the mission parameters. Kakashi however was not, having worked with Naruto some months previous.

"Correct, we leave tomorrow."

"Matte." Sakura spoke. They paused.

"Why 5 of us?" Tsume smiled.

"Normally it would only be 4 of us going, but we'll inevitably need a healer…" Sakura frowned and narrowed her eyes. She sighed and Naruto shrugged and Sasuke started to head home.

"We'll be there…."

**÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷**TimeSkip**÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷**

Naruto hates mornings, especially when it was snowing. Snow just made everything lethargic, and heavy. He yawned and scratched the back of his head as he walked to the gates to meet up with the others. The only other person there was Tsume and her dog Kuromaru.

"Ohayo." Naruto mumbled while Tsume only inclined her head. It was damnably freezing out, and the whiteness was annoying, it covered everything. Some people had to even dig themselves out of their home. It also made walking nigh impossibly, so most genins, chuunins and a few Jounins were helping people get from place to place as part of their assignments.

"Didn't think it would be this bad out…" Tsume commented.

"Aa, this was the year for Konoha's worst snowfall, it'll be like this all over the continent. Did you back warm clothes?" Naruto asked, and Tsume nodded once again. They both lapsed into silence as Sasuke arrived, followed shortly by Sakura. Now all they had to do was wait for Kakashi.

"He probably decided that it was far better to stay inside his warm apartment."

"Don't blame him." Sasuke muttered. They all sighed. After awhile of standing there in the freezing cold, some guarding chuunin came out and handed them some hot chocolate to keep them warm. Half an hour started when Sakura started to hum. After identifying what she was humming, Naruto sang along.

"Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul, with a corncob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of coal…" Naruto couldn't keep singing it without laughing, so in-between each verse he snorted or chuckled or snickered. Sasuke smiled goofily and Tsume was reminiscing. Sakura was trying not to smile, for it ruined her humming.

"Ohayo!" they turned to see Kakashi heading towards them.

"Sorry I'm late, there was this kind old lady who needed her fish to be fed in her pond and-" Sasuke sighed; Kakashi probably was telling the truth. But noticing the way he fidgeted, he guessed not.

"let's go." Thank god for Tsume or else they'd be standing around forever. The quickest way to travel in the snow covered passes was by tree jumping. They made better time than most people by the time they arrived into the borders of River country. It too was covered in snow.

"I suggest we quit for now and find an Inn to stay at." The mission leader was actually Tsume for this mission, Kakashi as a second. Naruto's suggestion had merit.

"we'll go for another hour, just beyond this trading town into the next one, and then stop."

"We should take our forehead protectors off, there should be nothing to connect us with Konoha." Sakura inputted and the adults nodded. Everyone took their hitai-ate and pocketed them. For Kakashi, Sakura produced a crafty eye pouch which he giggled over before putting it on.

The trading town that Tsume had in mind was actually further than everyone thought. They were lucky however, for by the time they reached it, the sky unleashed its flurries and a blizzard struck. They rented two rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. Kakashi and Naruto fought over one of the beds before Naruto was brutally (but not really) kicked off of it by Sasuke.

They made the mutual decision not to go to the bath houses, even if they were open. No matter how appealing the idea of a hot warm bath was, they weren't willing to go out in the weather to get to it.

It was midnight when Naruto heard a sound. A small sound, but a sound non the less. It sounded like shuffling. As if someone was dragging someone. Using all his ninja power he stealthily crawled to the door. Peeking under the bottom into the dim hallway he listened.

There it was again! Faint, and hardly noticeable. His eyes narrowed, he noticed across the hall to the girl's room that the door opened slightly to reveal Tsume's wary eye. Naruto stuck out a finger and waved to her, she nodded and closed the door, but a second later, her finger waved back from under the doorway.

They waited. Naruto had heard the sound because of his sensitive hearing. Tsume was probably up because Kuromaru had heard the noise and alerted her. The shuffling came again, this time longer. It wasn't too far from their rooms either. The shuffling got more frequent and soon, something came into Naruto's limited line of vision. Feet. Then a long something.

Someone. Someone was dragging someone. Naruto bit his lip, and watched, waited. The person spoke softly at bare whispers. Something about someone being heavy, most likely the person they were dragging.

Soon enough they passed and were gone. Naruto got up off the floor and gently opened his door enough to stick his head out, seeing Tsume do the same. She mouthed to him.

'Not our problem.' Naruto bit his lip again and nodded. She was right, it wasn't their business, but he didn't have to like it. He however had a nagging feeling, like what just happened would be important…

**÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷**TimeSkip**÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷**

hahaha. Finally! Next chapter won't be a time skip, as this will be leading somewhere… I hope.. I think.. yeah.

I'm on spring break, so there shall be more chapters… and the end is near! -cackles-

**Edit:** Fixed errors, thank you for pointing them out!


	12. 12 Trip to Stone pt II

**Grace**

Standard Disclaimer and Note still apply.

endolphins + Mrs. Nozomu Sohma – thanks for letting me know, I went back and changed the errors to what they were supposed to be. Hehe, I'd be up a creek without a paddle…

jennjennr – its not a bad thing to be channelling Jiraiya's spirit.. –snicker- also, I was trying so hard to refrain from having Kakashi tell a pirate joke… or to become a pirate. For becoming a pirate seems so like him…

Flaming Beauty – there shall be a second story in the same universe as Grace; however it'll be Naruto+Yondaime-centric and will happen shortly after Grace with snippets of Sakura and Sasuke discovering things... (And that story shall also remain pairing-less :p ) and I think the word your looking for is Yaoi, you were close though!

Thank you everyone for your reviews!

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Naruto couldn't sleep. In fact that was an understatement. 10 minutes ago he had closed the door and went back to bed, but so far hadn't been able to sleep. He bit his lip. Normally when Kyuubi felt threatened by something, his senses would pick up and become unusually sharp.

Right now they were going haywire. Something was _wrong_ about what just happened, and Naruto felt that everyone was in danger. He bit his lip. What to do? What to do? Naruto closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, useing his senses to scan the area.

He could feel it, it was small, but it was Killer intent non-the-less. Naruto frowned. Now where was it coming from? He sniffed the air. Nothing was out of the ordinary, scent of crumbling wall, humans, dog, moldy carpets, muddy earth and blood… wait... muddy earth and blood?

Naruto's eyes snapped open and realization struck him. Hardly moving, he created a kage bunshin clone. The clone lay beside him and looked at him, asking what it was to do.

'Wake the others, get them to leave, no arguments.' Naruto mouthed as the original flipped over onto his stomach, and wiggled to the door. Before he opened it, he created the tiger seal with his hands and used his invisibility jutsu. From there, the door seemingly opened on its own and Naruto proceeded cautiously into the hallway and across it to the girl's door.

The Bunshin gently touched Kakashi's leg and Sasuke's at the same time on the beds and immediately they woke, wary and with knives in their hands. The bunshin was too far away for his lips to be read, so he whispered.

"Need to leave, _now_." He whispered harshly, Sasuke didn't spare a moment and started packing what had come out of their bags while Kakashi hesitated.

"Danger, don't ask." Kakashi's eye narrowed and he nodded, proceeding to use genjutsu to mask their movements. The Naruto clone led them to the hotel opening, where they hid in the bushes and waited for their female comrades.

The real Naruto gently scratched the bottom of the door. A second later, he heard the patter of pawed feet.

"Kuromaru, wake, leave, don't ask." He whispered very softly, the retreat of footsteps alerted Naruto to the fact that Kuromaru had done just that. The wolf familiar of the Inuzuka clan didn't obey orders unless it was from someone of their clan. The fact that Kuromaru listened to him must mean the wolf had sensed it too.

Naruto waited anxiously for them to come out after casting the masking genjutsu. It felt like an eternity before the door opened and a pissed off Tsume glared at him. Naruto ignored her; He merely nodded at Kuromaru and Sakura.

"Koi." This time the wolf-dog took the lead and led them outside while Naruto turned around and faced the darkened hallway. He took a deep breath. He could feel everyone's signatures safely outside. He mentally gave a message to his clone and he felt them moving away.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu." He muttered and created 5 more clones. Each clone muttered Henge and his comrades returned by his side. He pointed two fingers forward and they spread out. He was in mental contact with them should they run into anyone; he hoped his senses weren't being confused….

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"Che. Damnit! What the hell is going on?" Tsume was to say the least, quite angry.

"Quiet. Naruto knows what he's doing, he has better senses than any of us and no doubt he detected someone's killer intent. Even if it's unnoticeable by the most powerful shinobi, Naruto can detect it. Stop under-estimating him, Tsume-san, even if it's not directed at us, Naruto has to make sure." Sasuke snapped at her, earning a glare from the dark haired woman.

"Tsume, you were in Sasuke's group, right? So you didn't have Naruto as a teacher except for some random times, right? I've learned to greatly respect him and his skills." Great respect from Kakashi? Tsume calmed down slightly, but she was still ticked.

"I also sensed it." Kuromaru's deep voice muttered from his muzzle. "But it was too faint for me to-"

Just then, the hotel they were lodged at was surrounded in a faint blue shield. Seconds later an explosion woke the entire town, contained within the blue shield. They stared with wide eyes, horrified.

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_This presence… I've felt it before. But where?_ Naruto walked slowly, silently and without noise down the hall. 2 bedrooms away from his and his comrades he paused. Who ever was in there was masking their killing intent very well, but the nearer he got, the better he could identify where it was coming from.

He signaled to his clones to create a shield. He couldn't identify the aura yet, but he knew it, and thus… knowing it couldn't be good. Once he received confirmation that the shield had been resurrected, he entered the room.

Naruto the only thing he saw was a bloody body on the ground vertical from where he stood, with an exploding note on it. It wasn't the note or the body that frightened Naruto, it was the clay head attacked to the body. The only word that went through his head was

_shit_

And then everything went Boom.

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The shield contained most of the explosion, but only seconds after the clones that created it vanished and the power sustaining the shield went dead.

"N-naruto?" Sakura was clutching her hands to the middle of her chest and she fell to the ground. Sasuke was doubled over trying not to cry. Kakashi was stunned and Tsume… well she was currently trying to be awoken by Kuromaru. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"We... should go. We have a mission to complete…"

"What about Naruto-kun? If he's gone then…"

"Our younger selves won't return and we'll be stuck here." Sakura whispered. Tsume, now awakened, stared at them sorrowfully.

"Gomen nasai…"

"Shut up!" Sasuke snarled and he stood properly, starting to walk away into the forest. he was followed shortly by Sakura.

"Let's go, the sooner we're done the sooner we can return and explain the situation as it stands." Sasuke told them, the guilty adults followed. Kakashi and Tsume didn't see the smirk on Sasuke's face or the small smile on Sakura's.

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"Special combo #4, yeah. Got him good, yeah." The stone shinobi giggled on the other side of the town. Her companions sighed.

"What about those that got away."

"We'll deal with them later; find out what they want first."

"Then we'll kill them, yeah."

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They walked until it was noon, stopping only for a few moments to eat their lunch before moving on. They were in Iwa by nightfall. They stayed in a hotel again, only this time they kept watches, and slept in the same room. After the first incident at the trading town in river country, they didn't want to lose another member.

"Tomorrow, Sasuke-san, Sakura-san, I want you to act like a boyfriend and girlfriend and go scouting. Kakashi and I will be elsewhere. Meet back here at 5."

They nodded. Tsume and Kuromaru set up watch while the others slept on the beds or on the floor. Sakura slept next to Sasuke purely from habit and comfort. She started to sign to him.

-_He'll come._-

-_I know. That's not what I'm worried about. It was that explosion._-

­-_Me too; It wasn't ordinary, it felt like one of _hers- Sasuke nodded at Sakura's suspicions.

-_yes, _Deidara.-

Morning came without incident for the team. Sakura and Sasuke went around town, buying souvenirs and keeping an eye out for anything. They played their roles absolutely flawlessly; having to have done it before, except it was Sasuke acting like Naruto's boyfriend, and that was some months back before they came to the past.

Sakura had made sure to mock him for several weeks, and even now was grinning evilly at him in reminder. He shuddered, that experience he never wanted to repeat.

Half past 2 they disappeared from the streets and used Naruto's invisibility jutsu to maneuver to where they had heard the Tsuchikage was located. They went unnoticed; Sasuke used Sharingan to understand the lip movements, while Sakura kept watch. Their chakra control wasn't as perfect as Naruto's, hence they had to be careful.

After an hour they retreated and went to the bath houses. They had learned nothing useful, but had managed to remain undetected, a good sign if they had to repeat the action. But something was bothering Sasuke.

He sat in the bath privately and meditated. Although he understood every word that had been said, and having it be confirmed as mere trivial matters that every Kage has to deal with, something about the way they said it… it sounded like a code. Not wanting to be overly suspicious, Sasuke left it. He would talk with Kakashi and Tsume later with it.

Out of their day, they got 2 'engagement' rings, and too many suspicions. Even though they knew how things would play out, they didn't know the finer details. Sasuke sighed and pulled at his hair. Sakura eyed him and sighed.

"Spill it, Baka." She demanded. Sasuke looked over at her; they had long since exited the baths and were waiting for Tsume and Kakashi to arrive from wherever they had gone too.

"You know, conducting business at night is dangerous, because the night hides someone more. So sometimes if someone is smart enough, they'll conduct dangerous business during the day. However, I think they were using a code of some sort."

"What did you overhear?" They turned to see Kakashi walking in the door reading his icha icha paradise book, and a fuming red faced Tsume following him. Did something perverted happen?

"Overhear? Not a sound. I copied their lip movements and understood from there. It's not their tone of voice I'm revering too, but the pauses in between certain words." Sasuke blinked in a confused way.

"Pauses?"

"Yeah… it was… like..."

"Morse code?" Tsume piped in, seating herself on the edge of the bed with Kuromaru at her feet. Sasuke blinked, and then nodded.

"Yes, exactly." His eyes widened. "Paper. Pen. Now." Not sparing for other words. Sakura rolled her eyes and supplied him with his needs. After several minutes, Sasuke had a piece of paper half full with lines and dots. Sasuke began to read it.

His eyes widened and he looked rather sick.

"Saskue-kun?" Sakura asked. Sasuke shook his head and handed the paper to the former ANBU member. Kakashi took it and read it. His visible eye widened.

"Jesus."

"Oh for Christ sakes, tell us already!…. Che.. men." Kuromaru rolled his eyes at Tsume's frustration.

"Agreed, Send full force, Attack next full moon, Kill intruders." Kakashi told them. Sakura paled. Tsume frowned.

"We need to leave." They nodded and packed their things. Their mission ended here, no point in attacking the Tsuchikage if they've been targeted already. The left the hotel and ran for it the moment they passed through the gates. Kakashi and Tsume and Kuromaru had long since forgotten about Naruto and the explosion.

"Leaving so soon? I'm afraid we cannot allow that." Came a wiry thing figure from the trees. Followed by a voluptuous blond molding clay with her hands and a second more bulky man and their fourth member looking like he was half rock and half human.

"Doton, Doryou Dango!"

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Kyuubi may be nice to Naruto now, but he wasn't a god, and he was still a bastard. Naruto winced, pealing the burnt skin off and bandaging it so it could heal better. Kyuubi prevented him from scaring, but the charcoal skin had to come off according to him.

Kyuubi had reacted faster than he had, managing to prevent the blast from killing him at that close of range, however he sustained heavy injuries regardless. The first thing he did was find shelter. He couldn't move, but he could survive a long time without water so he had stayed put in an outcropping of some rocks in the forest, almost enough for it to be a cave. He sighed.

"**This will hurt."** There came a rumbling voice at the back of his head. Naruto merely grunted. Kyuubi used his chakra to cleanse the wounds, and he was right. It did hurt. A lot. Naruto hissed and tried to prevent himself from biting down on his lip, no need to add to his list of injuries.

"ahhhhhhhhrrrgg!" he writhed, and eventually the pain became a slow throb and Naruto lay panting on the icy floor of his hideout. He couldn't move, courtesy of Kyuubi's ever so gentle treatment.

Night started to turn into day and Naruto felt his eyelids falling. He cursed. Now wasn't the time to sleep…

When he awoke, it was about midday. He yawned and stretched, finding that he could in fact move. His wounds were gone, but his clothing was, as a side effect of the blast, were barely holding together. He sighed.

"Damint, I liked this outfit too.." he stood and gathered his bearings. After awhile, he determined that left was the way his comrades went from his position. Hungry, slightly tired and his limbs numb from the cold, Naruto hoped he would make it back in time for dinner.

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"Sakura fubuki no jutsu!" Sakura's explosives against Deidara's, so far neither had won. Sasuke was facing off against the man nearly made of stone, while Tsume was facing the wiry thin male and Kakashi against the slightly bulkier male.

Their fighting had landed them with their backs each other, surrounded. They knew this wasn't a good position the moment someone called out a jutsu.

"Doton Kekai! Dorou Doumu!" and they were engulfed on a domicile of mud and earth. Sasuke tried to push a Raikiri through it, but the wall healed itself.

"Matte, Sasuke!" Kakashi told him when Sasuke was about to try something else. After a few tense moments, Kakashi cursed.

"Our chakra is being drained into the walls." Everyone frowned. There was nothing they could do as they couldn't find a way out of it without the walls repairing themselves. They tried to hit the weakest part of the walls, but found none as it seemed their opponents were lending their chakra too keep the walls chakra supply even.

They were screwed.

"At least it's warm…" Sakura mentioned lightly, they sighed.

"Ninpou: Rairyuu no Tatsumaki!" there yelled a familiar voice that even the four could hear inside their prison. Sakura grinned and Sasuke smirked. Kakashi and Tsume's eyes widened and Kuromaru… wait... Kuromaru? Speaking of the wolf… Tsume looked around. Realizing her wolf wasn't caught in the jutsu she smirked herself.

They couldn't see it, but a dragon made purely from lightning had attacked the foursome of enemy ninja whose hands were otherwise occupied. Naruto was panting. It took him the better part of 5 seconds to make his hands work; he was frozen to the bone. Moving was difficult for him. His burns may have been gone, but now there was a good chance he would get frost bite.

Having dispelled the earth jutsu, his job was done, and he collapsed onto fur as Kuromaru caught him on his back and watched warily as the stunned and shocked earth ninjas were disposed off or retreated. He was aware of his pink haired sister coming to heal him, and making him feel warm again with her healing jutsus, but he could care less.

"We need to leave." Naruto couldn't argue with that.

"Yeah, I figured as much." He joked

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I'm thinking since it is spring break and I want to get on with the next story of this series, that I'm going to do a chapter every day… or update two chapters every two days or something like that. Just to get everything done for this before my inspiration and keyboard die before I'm done ;;


	13. 13 Last Battle pt I

**Grace**

Standard Disclaimers and note still apply.

Jennjennr – throughout all the other chapters, team 7 has referred to themselves as siblings, so 'pink haired sister' is in fact a reference to that family type closeness with them. I dunno about Deidara though... the picture I saw of him/her/it had breasts on it... so… meh, he's she for now. I do try and catch the typos, I was also wrote it at 11 at night, I'll go through it again and fix what I can find.

Lord Vicious of the Azure S... – their not. Remember chapter 11? When they were spotted before at the trading town in river country? Ergo, they were spotted before then reaching Iwa and thus not as weak as they seem. And if they seem weaker in other chapters, its just cause of the situation surrounding team 7.

Mrs. Nozomu Sohma –I had to go over everything and try and catch my mistakes. I don't think we'll be seeing Deidara again, so yeah it's not really that important, but you can imagine that Kakashi got a nose bleed –laugh-

Thanks to everyone else that's reviewed! They really do help me continue writing. So I hope the next story gets just as many. (I can't wait to start the next story! )

Also; any jutsu's I create in this chapter, will have meanings at the end.

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Sandaime frowned, listening to Tsume report. They had been gone no less than a week and already things were looking bad. Even if he had the confidence of the 3 children from the future, he couldn't help but feel slightly mortified.

"Sou ka…" he muttered softly to himself. The next moon was in fact... 2 days from now. Too soon. Hadn't they said it would be 2 weeks of patrol attacks before the big battle hit? Sandaime frowned and smoked his pipe, thinking about things that were perhaps out of his hands. Sandaime dismissed Kakashi and Tsume while standing to stare out the window.

Had they been duped? Was there a code within the code? Did they lie? No. Sandaime didn't think they lied. True they had told many white lies to mislead, but not about something this important. He frowned. Something was off about everything, about this entire situation.

Looking down, his eyes caught some peculiar behavior coming from two of the three he had been thinking about. He smiled down at them. It seemed every moment they had to themselves they relaxed as much as possible. Well, at least some of them did.

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"No! Lemie go! Please I won't do any training I promise!" Naruto struggled in Tsunade's terrible grip. Yue and Hana hand their hands on their hips. Naruto gulped. Yue and Hana had warmed up significantly to Naruto, and often treated him like he was a little kid that needed to be taken care of, all the time. So when Sakura 'accidentally' let it slip that Naruto had nearly burned to death, followed by nearly being frozen to death… well the over protective mothers still wouldn't let him out of the hospital.

"Iie! Where do you think you're going!" Hana shot at him furiously. Naruto gulped. Yue cracked her knuckles as Tsunade finished wrapping him shoulder to toes in rope.

"Wait! WAIT! No fair!" Naruto shouted trying to free himself as the girls dragged him towards the hospital.

Sakura was on her way to visit Naruto when she had run into Itachi in the market. The elder Uchiha told her his mother was at the hospital when Sakura mentioned where she was going, so they walked together in some what of an awkward silence. Sakura, who was holding her mothers groceries that needed to be bought, nearly dropped them when she rounded the corner.

She opted to laugh herself silly instead. She remembered the time when Shizune had dragged Naruto to the hospital as well. It was damn hilarious. Itachi was blinking rapidly and his mouth twitched up into a smile.

"Is that-"

"Ah huh."

"Wow….. I've only seen my mother this stern on a few occasions."

"Oh, like what?" Sakura asked, looking up at the older Uchiha, or was it Younger Uchiha now? She smiled.

"Well, there was this time when my brother chipped his tooth, there was blood everywhere and mom wouldn't let him out of the house without bracers over his face to protect him." Sakura's eyes widened, mentally she cackled evilly at the prospect and sudden information.

"Really? Tell me more about Sasuke when he was younger." Itachi eyed her evilness and decided, why not. Neither one ended up visiting Naruto or their mothers, and instead spent the day telling stories of how stupid Sasuke and Naruto were…

Elsewhere, Sasuke experienced a day filled with sneezes and at the hospital Naruto was diagnosed with Sneezerititce.

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"Naruto-san?" Someone knocked gently on the apartment door. It was 4:30 in the morning, and Naruto was fresh from his 'nap'. Yawning he opened the door and stared into Hyuuga Hiashi's face.

"Hyuuga-san? What's up?" Naruto asked as he grabbed a coat. Hiashi motioned him to follow him.

"A meeting has been called." Hiashi told him. He walked swiftly and calmly as possible. However, Naruto could see the man was nervous. How old was Hinata and Neji now? 6 and 7? Hiashi had every right to be nervous.

"Hyuuga-san, worry about your family, and not your duties as a Shinobi." Hiashi stopped cold, and looked down at the spiky blond in surprise.

"Why would you say something like that? A Shinobi-"

"Must protect what is important to them. Your brother… he is dead now right? So it's your job to take care of his legacy. Don't worry so much about others. And focus on who needs your help. Mainly, your family. We have evacuation cycles so the civilians don't matter so much so long as they go where their told." Naruto grinned at him, and Hiashi's shock melted away into a small smile; his worry fading, but not disappearing.

"Arigato." Naruto supposed that in better light, his words might have been clearly questionable. But what was the point of protecting the citizens, who would already be in hiding, and have the future generation of Shinobi in danger or worse, dead? It was better to protect the future Generation of Shinobi in a great battle, so that they can help others along the way. Or at least, that was what Naruto figured.

The ANBU stationed at the doors of Sandaime's room let them through without as much as a nod. He saw that Sakura was there, with her father Saburo, and Sasuke with his father and brother. Kakashi and Tsume were there (whom he winked at) Jiraiya and the other 2 Sanin were there (whom he glared at.) The Ino-Shika-Cho trio was there, as well as Aburame Shibi.

Naruto frowned and took a seat beside Hiashi's, as it was the only empty one. Sandaime was also frowning. Something was up.

"Tomorrow is the full moon. Are you sure, absolutely sure that they will attack tomorrow." Sakura nodded at the Hokage's inquisition.

"Hai. At dawn." That startled some people.

"At dawn? That's not even an hour away!" Jiraiay exclaimed. However, Sakura was spared from having to explain by Shibi, who spoke up in his melodic deep tones.

"Did anyone bother to ask her for the exact time?" This was met with silence. Sandaime signaled to the ANBU guards.

"Shikamaru. We need a plan." Normally, the Hokage would call upon his advisors, but they weren't suited to warfare as well as Shikamaru was. The ANBU came closer to listen to the instructions that were about to be given.

"Stone will attack from the northwest, and Cloud from the Northeast. At best they will force us down south."

"In my opinion, the worst case scenario would be if Cloud managed to alley with any of the 3 water based countries; Sea Country, Water Country or Wave Country. Water Country and Sea Country have ninjas of their own, so wave isn't a problem. The probability of an alliance with Water Country is about 5 percent and the probability of an alliance with Sea Country is about 3 percent." Naruto imputed, looking over the map with the elder Shikamaru. People looked at him in surprise.

"Heh, I spent a month with the Nara clan learning Tactics." Shika smiled at him and nodded.

"It may be a small probability, but we shouldn't ignore it. I say send two squads to the east and south to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Preferably at least one animal summon so a message can be brought swiftly if they must engage." Naruto and Sandaime agreed with Shikamaru's insight.

"If we gather our forces towards the northwest and northeast-"

"They'll notice and change tactics on us." Shika interrupted Sandaime's train of thought.

"It would be better to evenly spread the guards around the walls." Saburo now entered the conversation.

"Aa, we'll still be prepared for an attack coming from those directions anyways." Hokage nodded with Naruto's words.

"We need a secure place to put the injured."

"We also need medic squads in certain positions so they can be of better access to the battles without intruding and becoming a burden." Both Tsunade and Sakura piped up from their seats.

"Very well." Hokage started making dots on the map; certain dots were certain colors and handed it to the ANBU.

"Move swiftly, we haven't much time."

"We should start the evacuation immediately." Inoishi stood from his spot. Hokage nodded to him and several of the gathered Jounins left. Soon it was just Shika and Team 7 with the Hokage.

"Old-geezer? There's a possibility that the Tsuchikage and the Raikage will come and fight." Naruto was standing before him, one hand on his hip, the other hanging limply at his side; he looked like a very powerful person in that position (which Sarutobi knew to be true). But he also looked like a leader should in that position. Naruto would make a good Hokage one day.

Shaking his thoughts out of his head, Sarutobi sighed. "You're probably right-"

"You're not fighting." Naruto told him coldly. The elder Shikamaru looked at him, frowning. Sandaime glared.

"Now listen here-"

"Iie. You listen. You can use a jutsu to make yourself appear younger, but you cannot return to your Prime. Those Kages are in their prime, you're not. You are old and your power is waning. Face it old man, you're washed up." Narutos words were cold and hash, they came out like whiplash that left the two adults stunned. Even Sasuke and Sakura looked surprised by Naruto's outburst. The Hokage looked sad.

"Hai.." He sighed.

"You can fight the higher Jounins if you want, but leave the Kages to either the Sanin or me." Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. He knew Naruto was powerful. But certainly not powerful enough to take on two kages!

"You?" he said disbelieving. Naruto smirked in a feral manor.

"Show off…" Sasuke muttered under his breath, even Sakura glared at Naruto.

"I defeated a one tailed sand demon at full power when I was 12. Don't under estimate me. I haven't even begun to channel the power of Kyuubi." Sandaime stared for a moment before chuckling, completely forgetting about Naruto's rude remarks before hand. Sakura and Sasuke sighed; there was no deterring Naruto from his choices.

"Fine. Just don't go overboard."

"I don't plan to." A large explosion sounded from not that far away, and shook the Hokage tower. Shikamaru frowned and opened his mouth.

"It's begun."

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Things had gone relatively as they had thought it had. Sakura and Tsunade had gone to the hospital, Sasuke left to the East while Hokage went to the west side. A quick decision had been made for the Hokage to go disguised as Naruto, and for Naruto to wait by the Hokage monument disguised as the Hokage.

They would come for him. He was sure of it. The battle raged on, homes were destroyed as Boss summons rampaged the city while dead enemy ninja's blood froze only minutes after being exposed. The Elite Konoha Ninja's were now extremely thankful for Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura's training on icy battlefields.

Though they had the advantage in Skill, they were still outnumbered by the forces of both Great shinobi Countries. Naruto planned on crippling them by taking down their leaders.

He didn't have to wait long for them to arrive. Two individuals faced him, both wearing Kage robes, like himself. Naruto smirked.

"Sarutobi… It's been a long time." Naruto didn't answer the Raikage that had spoken. Instead he sent a mental signal to his hidden bunshin clones, and much like what happened in River Country, a large pale blue barrier erected itself around them; plenty of room to fight in.

The Tsuchikage cursed, and both threw away their robes. The Raikage was a man with blue hair to his shoulders with a vertical slash down the center of his face. The Tsuchikage was a dark skinned man wearing white face paint, habitual with most puppet users; both wore traditional stylized armor over them bodies.

"He's not Sandaime Hokage, Yurai." Tsuchikage whispered, but with Naruto's superior hearing, he caught it. At least now he knew one of their names.

"Heh, you're right, I'm not." He grabbed the front of the robes and whipped them off, revealing the pale faced, blond haired boy. His clothing had changed during his stay halfway into the past. Instead of his navy blue suit, he now wore pitch black. Even his kunai holster was black. He also wore a Jounin vest, curtsey of a worried Shikamaru.

"I will be your opponent." He spoke, cockily at that. His words were greeted with lightning, but his body puffed out.

"Kage bunshin!" They both separated instead of staying together, going to opposite ends of the chakra cage.

"Che. Jishin no Jutsu!" the Tsuchikage called out, thinking that their opponent had gone into the ground. He caused a severe earthquake to rattle the ground around him. He smirked as the Blond was forced out of hiding, near enough for Yurai to attack.

"Raikyuu!" Yurai shouted, sending a powerful ball of lightning to Naruto, only to have him puff out of existence.

"Another clone?" whoever this guy was, he was good.

"Mirai! Behind you!" Too late, a Kunai pressed against the Tsuchikage's throat.

"You let your guard down…" Naruto stated, and cleanly cut across the man's throat. Mirai puffed into a stone and Naruto allowed himself a smile. Kawarimi no jutsu, eh? It was time to play with some of Naruto's original jutsus.

"Oto Denpa no jutsu!" he cupped his hands near his mouth and let out a bellowing shriek at the Raikage. This attack utilized sound and created visible waves at his opponent, causing some rather devastating destruction. The Raikage avoided it by slipping underground.

Naruto grinned. Both were apparently underground. Naruto pondered this; Cloud ninjas usually didn't know much earth jutsu. And Yurai, Mirai sounded like names given to siblings. Thus, he deducted that these two were in fact brothers. It certainly explained the easy alliance. While he was thinking, Naruto felt a hand grab his ankle while someone came up behind him.

_Shit!_

"Ninpou: Yaraishin!" Naruto quickly channeled chakra into his feet and jumped, carrying the Raikage with him. A swift kick the head and he freed himself while in the air. However, not without injury as Mirai's attack managed to stab him at least 3 times, twice in the arms, and once in his side.

"Shunshin no jutsu" Naruto whispered, and disappeared from their sight. Hanging upside down on the ceiling of his barrier, he silently enforced it for what he was about to do. He watched as they discovered him after a few moments.

"Raikyuu!" Another lightning bolt was sent his way, which he dogged rather magnificently by side-stepping. The lightning was absorbed into the barrier, which only served to make it stronger. He smirked.

"Hyouton! Souryuu Boufuusetsu!" the blond shot out his palms towards his opponents as two twin black dragons emerged from it. The ice and snow around in the containment field quickly blew around, making visibility low as the black chakra dragons harassed their targets before entwining into one.

Soon enough a black tornado appeared, with Naruto directing it from the sidelines (having fallen back down to the earth). It appeared now as though there was only one kage dealing with the tornado. Naruto looked around for Mirai, but couldn't find him. _Invisibility jutsu, eh? Two can play at that._ Naruto unleashed his senses after forming the required tiger seal to make him invisible.

Seeing that the Blond had disappeared, as well as the tornado, Yurai too went invisible. Now it was a battle of the senses. Pity Naruto was superior to them, what with having Kyuubi inside of him.

'_Its time to end this. Give me one tail worth!'_

'**You're lazy.'** Came the response. But none the less, Yurai, Mirai found themselves rooted to the spot by a massive surge of Chakra. The Chakra was red, and took the form of a one tailed fox. Due to the fact that Naruto had kept his invisibility jutsu on, he looked like a Fox made purely from Chakra.

Naruto brought his hands back, and shot them forward towards the two chakra signatures, red fox hands grasping his enemies' frightened faces and repeatedly bashing them into the ground, forming crater after crater in the ice and snow before he finally stopped.

"It's over." Naruto powered down and stared down into the craters. Honestly, he thought that two Kages would be a challenge…

Naruto sighed and was about to give the mental signal to his clones to remove the barrier so he could stop supplying energy into it when the ground rumbled and shook. Naruto stumbled and quickly jumped off the ground dashing of to the other side when he landed and watched the ground start to bulge unnecessarily.

Finally the surface soil and rock cracked and crumbled off, revealing a giant scorpion made of stone. The cage was big enough for this creature to move freely, but Naruto still took several steps back in horror. It was then that he remembered he had forgotten to ask Sakura and Sasuke a very important question back when they started to teach.

Would their own summons recognize them or would they too be summons of the past? Damnit! Naruto cursed repeatedly in his head wondering what to do. He stared upwards, noticing the Tsuchikage was holding a body. So… he managed to kill off the Raikage, not that he was reportedly known to be strong. Cloud ninjas _are_ notoriously weak.

But a pissed off Tsuchikage would be a menace. Naruto sighed.

"How dare you…" Naruto heard the man speak. Great, another revenge factor. Naruto winced, putting a hand to his neglected wounds. They were healing, but slowly. Kyuubi must be feeling particularly sadistic today.

"I'll kill you!" Naruto rolled his eyes at the over said expression.

"Ah-huh. Right, well it's your move." Still as cocky as ever. Mentally however, Naruto was wondering what killed stone, aside from really powerful fire.

"Houseki no Yoroi!" Naruto's eyes widened almost comically as he watched Mirai's frame be engulfed in some sort of see through rock. It was a second later when he realized how dangerous this new development could be.

"Oh Shit."

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hahaha! I love the ending of this chapter. Guess what! The end is near!

**Jishin - **Literally means 'earthquake'

**Oto ****Denpa – **Literally means 'sound' and 'radio waves.'

**Houseki no Yoroi - **Literally means 'jewel' and 'armor'

I made them up on the spot, but the Japanese is as correct as I could get it off a translator site.

Also: I apologise beforehand for the spelling and/or grammatical errors or misplaced words, this was slightly rushed because I couldn't update it yesterday night since the site was shut down and i felt bad about it :p


	14. 14 Last Battle pt II

**Grace**

Standard Disclaimer and Note still Apply

Miako – slow down? Aaaaah! –pulls hair out– trust me, if I had it my way, I would have rushed almost everything. I can't help it; I have very little patients, but trust me I am trying. Unfortunately, this story is doomed to end very soon. The next one will begin probably Friday. Possibly sooner.

GMan – yes, some things are a deviation from the original story line, if you notice a lot of things have been altered, such as the case with Orochimaru for example. Part of it was due to my own lack of knowledge; part of it was due to suit my needs for this story and my ideas.

Mrs. Nozomu Sohma – I am trying to keep the original jutsus within the realm of what could be accomplished by the Naruto characters, instead of giving them super uber godlike powers such as raining down meteors.

Thank you very much everyone for your awesome reviews! You all get a Clifford sticker. :p

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"Oh Shit."

_And the understatement of the year award goes to! _Naruto thought to himself angrily. The Jewel armour was actually more like diamond armour. There was no way Naruto could break it, he needed Sakura here to do that, and he didn't have that luxury. He also couldn't summon Gamabunta without repercussion, as there was a 90 percent chance that the frog boss wouldn't recognize him.

He wasn't given anymore time to think of a plan as the scorpion's tail came crashing down on his head. Or lord it hurt. God did it hurt! He staggered up to his knees, bleeding profusely from his head from a long gash starting from his ear and ending on his shoulder blade. Naruto wasn't even sure _how_ he had gotten it.

Naruto's vision swam before his eyes as he desperately tried to clear his vision, only to have blood swarm into his eyes. He wouldn't give up however, that wasn't his style. Slowly, painfully and to the amusement of the Tsuchikage, Naruto rose shakily to his feet.

_I have to… defeat that armor first…_Naruto silently analyzed his situation. _The scorpion boss can't harm me if I can't get to me, so that means fighting either far away, or on top of it._ Naruto watched the incoming tail, knowing full well he couldn't avoid it. Instead, he gathered chakra to his side and cushioned the blow.

However, he was still sent sideways, sliding on the ice. Wait… ice! Naruto smiled. By the application of heat, and then the immediate application of cold, the particles in some objects, such as stone, will lose their cohesiveness and disintegrate, and in some cases, make it incredibly easy to break.

Let it also be known that when stone is heated then cooled rapidly, the outside cools quicker than the inside, and large chunks fall off. Naruto now knew what he needed to do to accomplish both of these, the problem was would he have enough chakra to do it?

'**You will if I help you!'** boomed a voice in the back of his head. Naruto winced, but smiled none the less as the Kyuubi started to once again channel chakra to him. First his head wound and concussion healed, then the rest of his wounds (most he still cannot remember how he got) healed, leaving Naruto free to dodge the next lash of the scorpion boss' tail.

'_I don't have to worry about the ice factor, its nearly -20 out.' _ Which meant he only needed fire, and possibly water for his plan to work. Naruto took a slow, deep breath.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" two clones appeared next to him. He sent one into the ground, and another to the other side of the scorpion boss. However, the Tsuchikage would have none of this. But neither would Naruto. The moment he saw Mirai make hand seals, Naruto jumped into action, calling upon some of Kyuubi's chakra and using a powerful genjutsu.

"Kokuangyou no Jutsu!" Mirai found himself swallowed whole in a viod of blackness. No simple 'kai' would release it, and believe him, he tried. Even the Scorpian boss tried to dispel it, but it was filled with a demonic type of chakra. The kind of chakra that was almost palatable on Mirai's tongue.

Naruto was starting to pant, although Kyuubi was feeding him a steady flow of chakra, he was beginning to feel the strain on his body. The clone he sent underground now came up behind the domicile of blackness that the original had surrounded his enemy in.

He gave the mental signal to begin. One clone used a fire jutsu, putting medium amounts of chakra, while the other clone, a second after used a water jutsu. Being wet and exposed to the intense cold could not be good for the trapped Tsuchikage. By the way Naruto could feel large chakra bursts from inside his void; he could tell the Tsuchikage was trying various ways to free himself.

His clones continued their attack while Naruto continued to siphon Kyuubis chakra and divide it 7 ways. It was difficult, he had to supply a constant energy to each individual clone while simultaneously providing chakra to his genjutsu to prevent its expulsion, and he was defiantly feeling the strain now. 4 clones were maintaining the barrier, two attacking one after the other repeatedly, and Naruto merely sitting there, waiting.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw several Konoha ninja's gathered. Either they were wasting time, or his battle was the last one to be fought. He just downright hated being last.

Suddenly there was a loud, agonizing crack from his void, and immediately Naruto canceled one of his clones, readying the final attack. He canceled his genjutsu and surveyed the damage. Much like he had suspected, the stone scorpion boss was now a pile of broken rocks. Mirai's armor was also cracked, chipped and parts had broken off.

"Kanashibari no jutsu!" the remaining clone yelled, effectively preventing Mirai from moving.

Naruto and the Kyuubi saw this as the only moment they had. The demon fox blasted the boy with a large amount of his chakra, causing a thick layer to form around Naruto. Naruto on the other hand, crossed his hands in front of his chest and concentrated. Blue orbs surrounded by an outer layer of red chakra formed above each finger and thumb and the next moment he released his hands outward in a swift arc away from his body.

"Ten fingered Rasengan!" No sooner had he unleashed the small balls of power had he grabbed his roll of wire in his belt pouch. First he enforced the wire with his chakra then swiftly; decisively he shot both ends out, catching each tiny Rasengan ball in the middle and stringing them like beads. Each end wrapped around the stunned Mirai and pinned him, each Rasengan ball forced upon his body tightly, striking multiple areas with the same amount of compressed energy as a regular Rasengan ball.

However, this put Naruto at his limit. There was only so much he could do, and only so much of Kyuubi's chakra he could handle. When Mirai fell off the stony remains of his boss summon dead as any other corpse, Naruto collapsed onto the ground in a dead faint. The clones and barrier puffed out of existence leaving no one but himself left. He only had enough energy left from his battle to breathe properly.

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Sakura hadn't left Naruto's side the moment she had heard he was in the hospital. Several friends and family dropped by, supplying flowers and just checking to make sure he was okay. Sandaime visited often as well; Jiraiya and Tsunade as much as they could.

She sighed. Sasuke had received minor wounds, and was already healed of his injuries. Two extra beds had been supplied for them when they couldn't keep their eyes open. Sasuke was currently asleep on one of them.

Naruto still hadn't woken up. Both he and the Kyuubi had suffered massive Chakra drain. It was no surprise considering how much Chakra he had used. She had heard eyewitness accounts to the type of battle he had fought in against the two kages.

Although she had seen and fought with him when him was fighting seriously, every time she heard about it, or saw it, it just simply amazed her at his capacity. She sighed, looking out the window to the sunny blue sky. After months of snow and ice and clouds, it was finally sunny again.

Still. He had been out a week now. And Sakura was understandably worried for her friend. Never, never beforehand had he been out _this_ long from chakra drain. She looked down at him and smiled. Tsunade and been extremely fussy over bandaging him, and he now looked like a mummy; of course, minus the disembowelment and embalming aspects.

She had been so reflective in her thoughts she didn't notice Naruto's eyes start to twitch until his eyes opened with a soft sounding groan and they closed again. She was immediately down to his level, speaking softly at a whisper. Patients with chakra drain were unusual sensitive to light and sound. Reflecting upon this, she hastily shut the blinds as well.

"Naruto? Do you need some water?" she received a grunt which she knew by now to take as a yes. Taking the pitcher by the bedside table she filled a glass. She tasted it herself to ensure it wasn't poisoned (force of habit) and gently lowered it to his parched lips letting small amounts trickle down. He grunted again when he wanted her to stop and she did.

Sakura looked over to see that Sasuke had woken up and had taken residence on Naruto's other side in the vacant chair left there. They shared a relieved look at each other before concentrating on Naruto.

"How do you feel dobe?" Sasuke whispered to him.

"Like shit." Came the groggy and raspy voice that clearly belonged to Naruto. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Do you hurt anywhere, baka?" she asked calmly, never speaking above the soft whisper.

"'m head. Feels like… hit with mallet." His voice was also distinctly lethargic sounding. Sakura fed him some more water from the cup when she noticed his lips were parched again. She also frowned at his words.

"You have a slight concussion still. I take it Kyuubi-chan is working on it?" she received another grunt in affirmation. Sasuke perked an eyebrow.

"Sounds like you've reached an all new level to the language of the Neanderthal." Sasuke commented lightly, still speaking at a whisper. Sakura stifled her giggles.

"Actually, your head was hit with a stone tail…" she offered. This was met with a pitiful groan and both the dark haired and pink haired teenagers chuckled at the blond's expense.

"Go back to sleep. We'll be here when you wake up in the morning." Sasuke promised, looking down onto the face of his friend only to find he was still asleep.

"geeze." He said fondly with a smirk plastered on his face. Sakura merely sighed and decided to take a nap while Sasuke watched him.

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It was another week before Naruto was admitted out of the hospital. Sasuke helped Naruto to his apartment when Naruto merely shook his head. Sasuke looked at him confused.

"Pack your things. We're leaving tomorrow. We're going home, tomorrow." Naruto told him. Sasuke's eyes widened. Truth be told, he was sad he would be leaving the past. It also seemed like Naruto could read minds.

"I know, me too Sasuke. However, we _have_ to leave soon. We can't stay forever. Who knows what havoc our enemies are raging while we're gone. Fighting the Kage's made me realize that. Sakura's already packing."

Sasuke sighed and ran his hand through his hair, giving him a windswept look that would have driven Sakura crazy 4 years ago.

"Alright… Where do you want to meet?" He asked. Naruto had to actually think about that one. He yawned tiredly.

"Hmmm… in front of the hospital. In case something goes wrong." He winked and Sasuke was tempted to hit him for the snide remark. However, since he was recently injured, he settled for throwing a menacing glare.

"Whatever, dobe." With that the Uchiha left.

Sasuke had grown accustomed to his brother again, his nice brother. He was happy to be here. But he knew Naruto was right. He couldn't stay because it wasn't real. Well it was, but soon it would be a different reality. He sighed. His mind knew he had to leave, but his heart didn't want too.

Sakura was of the same thought. She enjoyed being here, her father was alive and she really wanted to stay. But all good things must come to an end and there were people depending on them. They had to leave. They had grown stronger here in the past, hopefully enough to help Konoha, instead of being its demise.

Naruto however, was haven't different thoughts. For him, it was nice where people didn't see him as a demon and respected him. He had a taste of what it would be like one day when he would become Hokage. He smiled, remembering the day they woke up in the hospital, stuck in the past. It was true; he hadn't done this solely to save them. Part of it was a gift to two people he loved with all his heart. His teammates. His best friends. His sister and his brother.

But he wondered, also, if anyone had tried to add 2 and 2 together and come up with 5? He grinned up at the ceiling. Soon, very soon he would tell them the real purpose.

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One more chapter to go folks before the second story of this series starts! Hehehe, you have no idea how long I've been wanting to do the 10 fingered Rasengan attack. But I had to save it for a special attack. I'm proud of myself for thinking it up… though I may have botched in explaining it.

Just so you know this _IS_ a Trilogy of a sort. Grace was merely the first 'part' of the grand story. I will give out the synopsis and name of the next 'part' of the grand story in the last chapter of this one. –kukukukukukuku!-


	15. 15 Returning and Leaving Again

**Grace**

Standard Disclaimer and Note still apply.

Mrs. Nozomu Sohma – you made me laugh so hard with that. The 'Godly Meteor Shower no Jutsu!' reminded me so much of DBZ… yes, I don't like it when characters are godly, I like it when their strong, but have weaknesses that can be exploited, even if those weaknesses are sometimes hard to see. Hehehe as for this last chapter… you slightly revealed what his purpose was, but I don't think you knew that you did that. :p

MingShun – you'd be surprised by the things I come up with randomly, most attacks aren't pre-planned and just come out when I'm writing. But the 10 fingered Rasengan was the one jutsu I planned on creating and using. :p

To everyone else that reviewed, thank you SO much!

A/N: before I get on with the last chapter. You need to know some things. First and foremost being that this is like an epilogue combined with a prologue and the first chapter of **Gravity.**

If you review, can you all give me input or just your personal ideas of what Yondaime Hokage's _first_ name would be? Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you so much!

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"So… you're leaving then." Naruto nodded. He was afraid of this, the overprotective Tsunade backed with Yue and Hana, who were currently crying their eyes out at the prospect of their older children leaving for their own time era, was a tad frightening. Everyone had gotten used to them, benefited from them. Hell, several Shinobi were now better than before because of them. Which is why they were sad to see them go; Even the stoic Tsume and Ibiki looked sad.

"It's not like we're leaving, leaving. You'll see us _very_ soon." Naruto grinned and Sasuke smacked his head, earning a large shouted of 'teme!' from the blond. Several people chuckled. Itachi managed to get Sasuke to shake his hand, Yue almost suffocated Sasuke when hugging him, but Yutaka was kind enough to pry his wife off his youngest son.

Hana and Saburo had also gotten quite used to their daughter, and were sad to see her go. They hugged her individually and even shed some tears. The old man Hokage walked up to Naruto with a thin package in his hands and a wry smile.

"I believe this is yours, or rather, it came with you." Naruto frowned at it. Shrugged he unwrapped it to reveal the blood stained silver katana that had been lodged in his right shoulder upon their initial arrival. Naruto sighed, and slid the blade back into its sheath.

"Also; since you went on a few missions, here's all your earnings from the A-rank and S-rank mission you went on." Naruto did a double take.

"Wait, A-rank and S-rank?" His eyes widened.

"Well… there was the C-rank, the B-rank and the A-rank you went on outside of the village. The S-rank was the elimination of the two Kages." Naruto eyed the old man. He had an unusual sparkle in his eyes. What an evil old man. None-the-less Naruto took the pouches of money. He recalled already spending the C-rank and B-rank money. He handed two of the three pouches off to Sakura and Sasuke and nodded.

"Well… I guess this is it, eh?" Naruto scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Goodbyes were never really his forte. Several people started to scramble forward grasping his hands and the hands of his comrades before taking a step back. The only one who remained within the 20 yard radius was Jiraiya.

"A 'see-ya-later' gift." He held the first edition, first print and autographed book 1 of Icha Icha paradise. Kakashi's eyes bulged out of their sockets and his fingers twitched as if longing to caress the book. Naruto just laughed outright and pocketed it.

"Thanks Ero-senin." He grinned at them all. Sasuke grabbed hold of Naruto in a headlock while Sakura took his free arm. He threw a dirty look at Sasuke before starting the seals to return them home.

"Matte! Naruto!" He looked over to Saburo, who had an unusual expression on his face. Yutaka was the one to speak next.

"Why did you help us if time will reverse back to the point in which you intruded?" Naruto paused on the last seal, and seemed to ponder that. His eyes flashed red and he grinned in that feral manor once again.

"Oh yes, about that…" he paused verbally while forming the last seal. Everyone drew in harsh breaths.

"I lied."

"NANI!" they shouted, but he was already gone, along with his two friends as they were engulfed in a sphere of red chakra. They stared at the spot where they used to be, and instead what lay there on the ground, in a peaceful slumber, were 3 children.

One was wearing a small red dress with strawberry hair and a red ribbon in her hair. One was wearing white pants and a blue shirt with the Uchiha fan on the back. And one was wearing a white shirt with an orange swirl in the middle with dark pants and several bruises and cuts marring his skin.

Yue and Hana kicked into autopilot and picked their kids up, casting concerned looks at little Naruto's sleeping form. They watched as the bruises started to fade and the cuts disappeared. Yue threw a dirty look to her husband, who relented and picked up the blond haired child. Sandaime blew smoke out from his pipe wearing a broad smile on his face.

"So you plan to take him home with you, Yutaka-kun?" It was actually Yue who answered the question.

"We can't keep him, that's not how he is supposed to grow up. But maybe we can give him a friend a bit earlier than expected…" she looked down at the heavy form of her own son and smiled. All in all, everyone was taking the fact that Naruto had lied about the interference of time rather well. Was this his plan? To make a difference from the source of the problem?

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He watched the blond be picked up by Lady Uchiha and found himself smiling slightly.

'_I can't do it. I can't bring myself to hate him… them anymore…' _ He let out a chuckle

"Hey, wait up!" that silky and somewhat husky voice called out to the backs of his retreating parents.

'_Looks like I'll be denying that offer after all…'_

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"BAKA!" Smack.

"Dooobbbeee!" Smack, smack.

Naruto chuckled and rubbed his bumps and bruises that he had been given by his siblings. Instead, he just smiled softly at them, looking up into the clear blue sky through the canopy of trees. It was no surprise they had landed in a forest near where they had originally left.

He actually didn't answer them, just walked a little ways until he reached a small hill in a clear patch of forest. Lying down, he looked up at the sky. Sakura and Sasuke were very angry with him, and they made sure he knew it.

"Have you ever felt the earth?" Naruto asked, causing Sakura and Sasuke to blink at the random question.

"To have the power to change things… when you come across your first patient, a dying one, you have the power to change everything, but will you use that power to make things better? Or will you stumble and fall backwards unable to move because your petrified of all the things that could go wrong?" Naruto reached upwards with his hand and drew a lazy pattern in the sky above him.

"Are things really complicated, or could they be simplified? Heh, even I have to have a moment to be philosophical sometimes. Say you had a chance. A chance to change everything, prevent people from dying in the first place. Would you take that chance? Not because you could, but because it would be the right thing to do?" They were silent. Naruto just continued on speaking as if he were confessing to Kami himself.

"A chance for a happy ending? The probability of me becoming Hokage is actually rather slim, simply because I cannot take back the lives Kyuubi took. Because of this my dreams are almost impossible to accomplish…"

"Don't say that! Naruto stop being an idiot for Christ sakes." Sakura snapped at him. Naruto grinned.

"I took us back because I cared. I wanted to change things because it hurts." Sakura settled down on his left, Sasuke on his right.

"Hurts, Dobe?" Asked the dark haired one of their group.

"When your clan died, you felt helpless. When your father died, you felt helpless… What if your father never died, Sakura? What if your Clan never died, Sasuke? Everyone says Time cannot be changed. We don't know that unless we try, right? I've never been one to gamble with material possessions, it's either all or nothing. If we don't try, we'll never know. And then we'll be plagued with 'What ifs?' for the rest of our lives."

"What if I killed you right now?" Sasuke growled at him. He was slightly frightened of this side of Naruto, he had never seen it before. Sakura had, once, but only for a second.

"What if I never existed? There are some things I rather not find out; but if I can change everything and make it better, than I will try because I hate seeing my precious people pain over what they couldn't help."

"Naruto… you went back to change everything so that our families wouldn't die?"

"Not just your families, but everyone else's as well. If we hadn't been there, they wouldn't know that stone and cloud would attack at dawn, but because we were there, so many families were spared."

"Naruto, do me a favor." Naruto looked over at Sasuke with a questionable gaze.

"Snap out of this funk. You're not like this at all, and frankly it's freaky." Naruto blinked at him, and smiled softly.

"Lets head back to Konoha and see what changed and what didn't." Naruto sat up and yawned.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked. Naruto merely grinned.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure. But I suspect that people who are supposed to be dead will just randomly appear and come back to life, their graves completely disappearing, but their memories will not. Everyone will remember that they died, and they too will remember they died, but… well maybe not. Maybe everyone will think they were in a coma or something. I don't honestly know. I do know that the memories that people have of us before we went back in time, will stay the same and will not alter." Sakura grumbled under her breath and threw Naruto a threatening glare.

"This is really confusing, I don't understand at all." Naruto shrugged at her.

"Ma, I need Ramen!" he suddenly bolted and ran down the hill, only to stumble on a rock and roll down the rest of the way.

"What the hell was that all about?" She asked, standing as well.

"No clue. He's completely strange. One too many bops to the head, ya know?" Sasuke even demonstrated much to Sakura's amusement.

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"There's a town not far from here." Sasuke spoke up. "Actually it's just around the bend." He mentioned, much to the tired delight of Naruto and Sakura, the former complaining loudly about having to walk.

"Yush! So who are we going as?"

"Why not as a family, since that seems to be the topic of the day." Sakura suggested.

"Hai! I'll be the daddy, Sakura can be the mommy, and Sasuke can be the kid." Naruto was grinning from ear to ear. Sasuke cracked his knuckles and Naruto paled considerably.

"Heheh, I was joking!" he threw his hands in front of him and waved to fend off his angry friends.

"Naruto, you know the Akuma-henge, you have to be the kid." Sakura explained while she threw on a Henge. Sasuke followed her lead. Naruto sighed. He looked at Sakrua who was now a brown haired older version of herself, and Sasuke a blond haired older version of himself.

"Fine, fine… Akuma Hange!" unlike the normal henge that created a genjutsu around a person, akuma henge actually physically altered the body. His body took about 5 minutes to shrink to that of an 7 year old. His clothing of course, was now too big for him. But the second part of Akuma henge solved this problem as his clothing puffed into smaller sized versions. Even his voice changed.

"Mooom, can I get an ice-cream?" He asked Sakura while taking her hand. Sasuke was trying his hardest to not laugh, and Sakura was blushing, reminding herself that it was 'good practice for the future'

"Ask your father." Sakura replied, desperately trying to not laugh.

"dad?" Naruto pouted. Sasuke was shaking with the effort to refrain from giggling.

"Ah.. sure.."

"Yatta!" He grabbed Sasuke's hand and swung in-between them, like any normal child would. Naruto wore a big grin on his face. Being a kid again wasn't so bad actually.

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Naruto sat on a public bench licking his ice-cream cone while 'mommy and daddy' went to go clothing shopping and supplies shopping. They were, at the very least, 3 weeks walking distance away from Konoha. They would need it the supplies.

He was happily licking away when he smelt a familiar scent. It tickled his nose as he tried to place where it was from. Was it….. Ramen? No. something else. Dango maybe? Nope. Ah well, it wasn't his concern. Instead he occupied himself with finishing his ice-cream. Once he was finished, he pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. From there he started to write.

When he was finished, he put the paper in an envelope, and from there wrote 3 words as two who the note was addressed to. Looking around to make sure he wasn't watched, he calmly went 'exploring.' The truth being he was taking an indirect root to the local park. It was empty.

Sighing, he began the one handed seals again.

_To Sakura, Sasuke._

_Gomen. But like I said, if you have the power to change things for the better, would you hesitate? Or go for it? You know where to go, so go there. I'll come back later, tell Obaa-chan about our adventures!_

_It's just that… this time… I want to selfish for once…_

_Naruto._

"U….. ZU… MA… KI!" Naruto froze in his second to last seal. That voice. That putrid and vile voice. Naruto turned around slowly and gasped horrified. No, he hadn't been back a full day yet! How could he find them?

The man chuckled, red hair stirring in a sudden breeze as lifeless black eyes grinned sickly at him.

"I found youuuuuuuu!" Naruto was frozen; he realized it was Kanashibari no jutsu and he gulped. Akira came at him again, he felt a strong sense of déjà vu happening. He felt the kunai press against his neck this time…

Kyuubi was the one to take control of his hands and perform the last seal, breaking the kanashibari as well. The familiar sense of being frozen in time as red chakra swallowed both of them whole, they stared at each other. Akira was trying to move, but he couldn't move, neither could Naruto for the matter as everything started to wind backwards…

≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡ThePast≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡

"Survival test? But we've already done one of those." a strawberry blond haired and hazel eyed girl spoke up

"Ah. Still…you have to get these 2 be-" The man speaking was interrupted as a globe of red chakra with enough force to whip trees out of the ground arrived some feet away. Thinking fast, the man grabbed his 3 students and vaulted backwards.

"Nani?"

Two figures immerged from the red sphere. And as if released from some spell, the larger red haired man slashed what looked to be a young child's throat. The Jounin gasped, horrified.

"Hey!" The Red Haired man looked at the other person, and seemed to realize something upon looking at his face

"Oh? Well this is interesting." He giggled, licking the blood off his kunai before he disintegrated into sand. The Jounin instructor couldn't get to him in time to engage in battle, which was probably a good thing.

"Rin, Obito, Kakashi, go home, NOW." The blond haired Jounin picked up the bleeding child and disappeared in a yellow flash.

≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡EndOfChapter≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡

In Infinite **Grace** we find ourselves soaring above the others to an unknown destination. But in the end, we must all bow to the **Gravity** in which the flow of life takes us.

≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡EndOfStory ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡

hahahahahahah I am soooo cruel. So, so cruel. Anyways, yes…This chapter is also chapter 1 of **Gravity** so… there it is. I bet you all want to read the next story now? Well, I still need your opinions on what Yondaime's name should be!

I'd also like to thank you all for your reviews and kind remarks. Thanks to you, I can keep writing. So again, thank you, and I look forward to your reviews on **Gravity.**


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